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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



A DAY 



IN THE TEMPLE 



fP 



REV. A. J. MAAS, S. J. 

Prof, of Oriental Languages in Woodstock College, Md. 



OCT 29 1892 



ST. LOUIS, MO. : 

PUBLISHED BY B. HERDER. 

17 SOUTH BROADWAY. 

1892. 



V/f 63VC. 



t o 



A & ' 






Copyright, 1892, by Joseph Gummersbach. 



PREFACE 



An accurate acquaintance with the sacrificial 
services and the Temple-rites at the time of Jesus 
Christ serves a double end. First it illustrates a 
considerable part of the New Testament history 
in a precise and striking manner. The Virgin 
Mother at her purification and the presentation 
of her First-Born, the Christ-child among the 
Rabbis, the Lord Jesus teaching in the Temple- 
courts, walking in Solomon's porch, sitting in the 
treasury, disputing with the scribes and the chief 
priests on the Feast of Tabernacles and finally 
denouncing their greed and hypocrisy, are a few 
of the events which will assume a new meaning 
when viewed in the light of the daily Temple-life. 

But beside its historical interest our study has 
also a dogmatic and hermeneutic value. "The 
end of the Law is Jesus Christ, unto justice to 
every one that believeth" writes St. Paul to the 
Romans.* The exact knowledge of the Law, 
of which the daily sacrificial services form no 
small or unimportant part, will beget a deeper 
knowledge and more devoted love of its fulfill- 
ment, the sacred person of the Word Incarnate. 
For here we shall see plainly " that the way into 

* X. 4:. 

(3) 



4 PREFACE. 

the Holies was not yet made manifest, whilst 
the former tabernacle was yet standing." * 

This is the twofold purpose of the present work 
and at the same time the apology for its manifold 
shortcomings. Whilst the ancient sources and 
the modern literature bearing on the subject, 
make this work possible, the remoteness of the 
former and the abundance of the latter render it 
extremely laborious and irksome. Without pre- 
tending to have overcome all difficulties on his- 
torical and topographical questions, or to have 
settled all discrepancies concerning the same 
points, we refer the reader to those authors whose 
works have been especially consulted. While 
thus furnishing every one with the means to 
acquire a more detailed information, the author 
expresses his own obligation for the manifold 
assistance he has derived from the able works of 
so many industrious students in Jewish and Bibli- 
cal Antiquities. 

The foremost place among the sources belongs 
to the Bible, especially the Books of Kings, 
Paralipomenon, Esdras and the Gospel of St. 
Luke. The Talmudic tracts Tamid, Middoth and 
Bechoroth too deserve special mention. In the 
measurements of the Temple, Middoth has been 
followed exclusively, while Tamid has been the 
final authority on the daily service. In questions 
of profane history, the works of Josephus have 
been used extensively. 



* Heb. IX, 8. 



PEE FACE. 5 

Among later authors and works the following 
are especially entitled to the writer's gratitude : 
Buxtorf, Lexicon Chaldaicum et Talmudicum ; 
Kitto, Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature ; Smith, 
Dictionary of the Bible ; Keil, Handbuch der 
Biblischen Archaologie ; Jahn, Biblical Archaeo- 
logy; Haneberg, Die religiosen Alterthumer der 
Bibel ; De Hamme, La Terre Sainte ; Stanley. 
Syria and Palestine ; Publications of the Palestine 
Exploration Fund ; Geikie, The Holy Land and 
the Bible ; Schottgen, Jesus der wahre Messias ; 
Reuss, Geschichte der Schriften alten Testa- 
mentes; Jost, Geschichte des Judenthums und 
seiner Zeiten; Herzfeld, Geschichte des Volkes 
Jisrael ; Sepp, Leben Jesu ; Schiirer, The Jewish 
People in the time of Jesus Christ ; Delitzsch, 
Jesus and Hillel ; Farrar, Solomon, His Life and 
Times ; Farrar, Seneca and St. Paul ; Lemann, 
Valeur de 1'Assemblee qui prononca la peine 
de mort contre Jesus Christ ; Lightfoot, minist- 
erium templi, quale erat tempore nostri servatoris ; 
Zunz, Gottesdienstliche Vortrage; Edersheim, The 
Temple, its ministry and services. 

These names and works are not mentioned as 
if they were supposed to constitute a complete 
bibliography on the present topic — this may be 
found in almost every one of the most recent 
works — but merely to acknowledge that they 
have been used very extensively. Not as if all 
could be recommended indiscriminately to every 
reader; but the careful student who knows how 
to distinguish between fact and fancy, will find in 



PBEFACE. 

» 

them a fruitful source of information on the most 
recondite points of Biblical Antiquity. 

While reading this book it must be kept in 
mind that all we really know of Samuel, so often 
mentioned in the course of the narrative, is taken 
from the Protevangelium of James according to 
which he ministered in Zachary's place when the 
latter was afflicted with the miraculous dumbness. 
While therefore the general events supposed by 
and connected with the story are historical facts, 
the details of Samuel's life are fiction. Finally, 
the author will consider his labor repaid a thou- 
sandfold if his production assists even one soul to 
" grow in grace and in the knowledge of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." * 



* II. Pet. III. 18. 



CONTENTS 



Chapter I. Going Up To Jerusalem. 
II. About The Cockcrowing. 
III. The Sky Lit Up As Far As 

Hebron. 
IY. About The Third Hour. 
V. Among The Rabbis. 
VI. The Sanhedrin. 
VII. About The Sixth Hour. 
VIII. The Evening Sacrifice. 

(7) 



JEWISH MEASURES AND MONEY. 



L. Long Measures. 

Ft. In. 

A digit — 0.912 

4 digits = I palm — 3.648 

3 palms = 1 span — IO-.944 

2 spans = I cubit I 9.888 

4 cubits == 1 fathom 7 3.552 

1.5 fathoms = I reed 10 11.328 

N. B. 1° 400 cubits = I furlong ; 5 furlongs = I 
Sabbath day's journey; 10 furlongs = I mile; 24 
miles == 1 day's journey. 

2°. According to other authorities, a cubit = 
19.05 15 inches; others again maintain that a cubit 
is equal to about 18 inches. 

77. Liquid Measure. 

Gals. Pts. 

A caph — 0.625 

1.3 caph = 1 log — 0.833 

4 logs = 1 cab ....... — 3.333 

3 cabs = 1 hin ....... 1 2 

2 hins = 1 seah 2 4 

3 seahs = 1 bath, or ephah . . 7 4.5 
10 ephahs = I kor, or homer . . 75. 5.25 

• (9) 



10 



JEWISH MEASURES AND MONEY. 



III. Dry 


Measure. 








Pecks. 


Gals 


Pts. 


A gachal 


. . — 


— 


0.1416 


20 gachals = 1 cab 


— 


— 


2.8333 


1.8 cab = 1 omer . . 


. — 


— 


5-1 


3.3 omers = 1 seah 


1 





1 


3 seahs = 1 ephah . 


3 





3 


5 ephahs = 1 letech . 


. 16 








2 letechs = 1 kor, or homer 32 









IV. Money. 

Dols. Cts. 

A gerah . . . — 2.73 

10 gerahs = 1 bekah .... — 2 7-37 

2 bekahs = 1 shekel — 54-74 

50 shekels = 1 manch .... 27 37-50 

60 manchs = I kikkar (talent) . 1642 50 

A gold shekel 8. 76 

A kikkar of gold 26280. o 

N. B. A shekel would probably purchase ten 
times as much as the same nominal amount will 
now. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 



CHAPTER I. 

GOING UP TO JERUSALEM. 

It was after the sixth hour on an early Ellul-day 
in the year of Rome 748, that two lonesome trav- 
elers were journeying eastward, from Ain-Karim 
to Jerusalem. One was an old man, well stricken 
in years, while his companion had hardly reached 
the age of the early oriental manhood. Though 
not clad in any distinctively priestly dress — for 
such was worn only in the Temple at actual ser- 
vice — Zachary and Samuel may be recognized at 
first sight as belonging to the sacerdotal caste. 
Had all Jehovah's priests been as just and 
faithful to their duty as Zachary had been all 
the days of his life, Malachy would have had no 
reason to upbraid the priestly generation of his 
time, for turning aside from the way and causing 
many to stumble in the law. 

Their journey may be divided into three parts of 
nearly equal length. For the first two miles the 
road ascends and winds over a high plateau, past 
the village Beit-Masmile. Then follows an undulat- 
ing road, nearly three miles in length, across the 
Wadys Diab, Badawieh and Madineh. An easy 
walk of two miles more would have brought them 

(ii) 



12 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

to the northwestern corner-gate of the Holy City, 
had they been willing to avail themselves of the 
straight road. 

Zachary is so wrapped up in his own thoughts, 
that he is alike insensible to the heat of a Syrian 
September sun, to the luscious fruits of the extens- 
ive vineyards at both sides of the road, and to the 
view of the Holy City, with its surrounding hills 
and mountains. It is, however, a glimpse rath- 
er than an impressive view of Jerusalem, which 
presents itself to the eye of the traveler on 
the high plateau — more than two thou- 
sand feet above the Mediterranean — across 
which our friends pass in silence. All this and 
much more is seen and enjoyed by the youth- 
ful Samuel, Zachary's ward and presumptive heir. 
He notices in the vineyards especially all the par- 
ticulars which he has often read in Isaiah's 
description of them : " My well beloved had a 
vineyard in a very fruitful hill ; and he made a 
trench about it, and gathered out the stones 
thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and 
built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out 
a winepress therein." 

On the hill-tops, he compares the extensive 
western view with the limited eastern one. The 
former extends over the Mediterranean and sug- 
gests the world-embracing power of the Romans ; 
the latter offers only a part of Jerusalem, and is 
cut off by the blue mountain ranges of Moab, most 
potent reminders of Egypt and Babylon. The 
questions concerning Daniel's seventy weeks and 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 13 

Jacob's prophecy that until the Messiah's coming 
the scepter should not pass from Judah, nor the 
ruler's staff from his descendants, naturally revive 
with new vigor in Samuel's active and ardent 
mind. 

One thought, however, overpowers all his other 
reflections. In that city lives Herod, the mur- 
derer of hLs grandfather Josiah, the deadly enemy 
of his father Ananiah, and the destroyer of his 
family. He himself would not have been allowed 
to return to Jerusalem, had not Matthiah pleaded 
for him at Herod's court. The old question, too, 
over which he has so often pondered, comes back 
to his mind: Why had his father Ananiah to flee 
to Babylon, while Zachary, his father's brother, 
was left unmolested ? 

" Son," replies Zachary, " when my father lost 
his life soon after Herod's accession, I was already 
known among my friends and acquaintances as 
the childless. Herod intended to disgrace and 
blot out our family forever ; all its members who 
had hope of offspring were slain, unless they saved 
themselves by flight. I was spared, not through 
mercy, but through hatred. My childlessness was 
to be the final disgrace of our ruined house." 

Now another object invites our attention. 
Close by the road Zachary points to the Upper 
Pool and the Fuller's Field, places hallowed by 
Isaiah's renowned prophecy given to Ahaz : " Be- 
hold the virgin is with child, and beareth a son, 
and shall call his name Immanuel." 

" Mar," says Samuel, " why do our people con- 



14 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

sider virginity a reproach ? Will not the Messiah 
be a virgin's son ? " 

" In Judea," interrupts Zachary, " we are not 
called ' Mar,' but ' Rabbi ; ' it is not expedient to 
betray thy Babylonian origin and training to 
every master in Israel." 

" With others," replies Samuel, " I shall be 
most careful about the choice of my words. As 
to thee, Mar, I cannot change my life-long habit 
of speech and thought. Thou shouldst seem a 
stranger to me, were I to call thee Rabbi. But 
thou hast not yet answered my question." 

" In the Messiah," answers Zachary, " the 
Lord will create a new thing on the earth : a 
woman shall encompass a man. Yet, all this will 
be accomplished in such a way, that the Messiah 
will be as the dew of heaven, the offspring of the 
heavenly mother." 

."If the Messiah is not to be the offspring of 
wedlock, the barren should not be despised as 
they are," interposed Samuel ; " nor should Eliza- 
beth thy wife consider ' barren ' a name of oppro- 
brium. It afflicts my very soul to see how she 
shortens her days by grief over her childlessness." 

'•Alas, my son, there are more reasons than 
the one thou allegest for considering barrenness 
an evil and a reproach.. The barren do not fullfil 
the creator's wish : ' Be fruitful and multiply, and 
replenish the earth ; ' they do not share God's 
blessing promised to Moses on condition of Israel's 
fidelity to Jehovah : ' There shall none cast her 
young, nor be barren in the land ; ' on the barren 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 15 

to® rests Isaiah's curse hurled against Babylon : 
' These two things shall come to thee in a moment 
in one day, the loss of children and widowhood.'" 

Samuel is deeply moved by Zachary's sigh of 
grief. Only once before has he seen his father by 
adoption in such a state of sorrow, when a few 
days ago an inconsiderate chiefpriest spurned the 
old man's services asking : " How canst thou, 
childless though thou be, presume to stand among 
those blessed with offspring ? Thy works are an 
abomination before the Lord, since he has deemed 
thee unworthy of fatherhood ; for cursed is every 
one who has not begot a male or female in 
Israel." 

" Am I not thy brother's son," Samuel suggests 
as another motive of consolation, " and the off- 
spring of Elizabeth's sister Ismeria ? In every 
Levirate marriage one's brother's seed is con- 
sidered as one's own; and similar legal adoption 
has taken place in our own priestly family." 

Zachary has meanwhile regained his habitual 
composure of manner. " When God hath tried 
me,'' he repeats after holy Job, " I shall come 
forth as gold. My foot hath held fast to his steps ; 
his way have I kept, and turned not aside. I 
have not gone back from the commandment of 
his lips ; I have treasured up the words of his 
mouth more than my necessary food. But he is 
in one mind, and who can turn him ? And what 
his soul desireth, even that he doeth. For he 
performeth that which he appointed for me. But, 
my son," Zachary continues, *' I am greatly per- 



16 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

plexed at thy great ignorance of our priestly an- 
cestry. Knowest thou not that no son of Aaron 
can minister in the Temple*. of Jehovah, unless he 
produces the proof of his sacerdotal pedigree ? 
The children of Habaiah, of Hakkoz and of Bar- 
zillai who returned from Babylon, were deemed 
polluted and put from the priesthood, because 
they sought their registers among those that were 
reckoned by genealogy, and they were not 
found." 

Our travelers have now reached the immediate 
vicinity of the western gate, corresponding to the 
Joppa Gate of to-day. A line of camels takes up 
for the moment all its available space. They 
meekly follow their leader striding on before them 
in white headdress and byssus shirt, with bare 
legs, carrying a bundle on his back, and hold- 
ing a cord from the nose of the foremost camel in 
one hand, and a water bottle in the other. Several 
grave turbaned figures rest in the shade of a 
solitary olive tree, seated on the ground, and re- 
clining in all the delight of idleness on their crossed 
legs. Roman soldiers and palace guards stand at 
the gate or lean against the city wall, jesting and 
conversing in a barbarous tongue. 

To the right of the gate, in full view of the new 
arrivals, there stands the magnificent palace of 
Herod, on the very site of David's royal castle. 
Situated on the northwestern angle of Mount Zion, 
it is sheltered by the towers Hippicus, Phasaelus 
and Mariamne, all compactly built of immense 
marble blocks, square, strongly fortified, and de- 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 17 

fended by battlements and turrets. The towers 
have been erected by Herod, and named after his 
friend and his brother lost in battle, and after his 
favorite wife killed through jealousy. 

This gentile portion of the Holy City has been 
the repeated theme of Pharisaic complaint. Jeru- 
salem must be Levitically purer than any other 
city of the promised land ; the paschal lamb, the 
thank-offerings, the second tithes may be eaten 
only in Jerusalem. No dead body may remain in 
the city overnight ; no sepulchres are within, ex- 
cept those containing members of the house of 
David and that of the prophetess Hulda. No 
domestic fowls may be kept, no vegetable gardens 
planted, no furnace built. A favorite saying of 
the Rabbis has it : " The world is like unto an eye. 
The ocean surrounding the world is the white of 
the eye, its black is the world itself, the pupil is 
Jerusalem, but the image within the pupil is the 
sanctuary." 

We cannot blame Zachary and his youthful 
companion for avoiding the western gate and the 
gentile quarter of the city. Turning to the right, 
they pass along the western side of the city, 
by the Lower Pool and enter, south of Jerusa- 
lem, the pleasant valley of Hinnom, now the 
figure of the place of future torment. This 
southern valley meets another and a deeper 
ravine which sweeps around the eastern side of the 
city, and separates it also on its northern side from 
the rocky plateau of which it forms a part. Well 
might the old inhabitants of Jebus look proudly 
2 



18 A DAT m TEE TEMPLE. 

down upon David and his host appearing under 
their walls ; well might they exult in the strength 
of their everlasting gates, as they sent to David 
the mocking message : 4< Except thou take away 
the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in 
hither." What followed is well known. Joab 
first climbed that steep ascent, and won the 
chieftainship of David's hosts, and the everlasting 
gates lifted up their heads, and Israel's kings 
dwelt in the stronghold of Zion, and called it the 
" City of David." 

But it is not the verdure of Hinnom nor the 
darkness of the Kedron valley that interest 
Zachary and Samuel on their roundabout way 
into Jerusalem. The point they have last touched 
in conversation, is too vitally connected with the 
young Aaronite's immediate future to be dismissed 
without further discussion. Samuel is about to 
assume the regular duties of the priesthood, and 
must therefore above and before all else produce 
evidence of his priestly descent. 

" I meant to say, Mar," resumes Samuel, " that 
our family has been substituted in place of Abijah's 
family, and that we are, therefore, legally con- 
sidered the offspring of Abijah." 

u My son," replies Zachary, " thou only showest 
more clearly that thou dost not fully understand 
the history of the priestly families. The Book of 
Days * gives us the first clear outline of our genea- 
logical divisions. The courses of the sons of 



* I. Par. XXIV. 1-19. 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 19 

Aaron were these : the sons of Aaron, Nedab and 
Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. But Nedab and 
Abihu died before their father, and had no chil- 
dren ; therefore Eleazar and Ithamar executed the 
priestly office. And David with Zadok of the 
sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of 
Ithamar, divided them according to their order- 
ing in their service. And there were more chief 
men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons 
of Ithamar, and thus were they divided: of the sons 
of Eleazar there were sixteen heads of fathers' 
houses; and of the sons of Ithamar, according to 
their fathers' houses, eight. Thus were they di- 
vided by lot, one sort with another ; for there were 
princes of the sanctuary and princes of God, both 
of the sons of Eleazar and of the sons of Ithamar." 

" Do our genealogical records reach back to the 
period of David?" here inquires Samuel. 

" Shemaiah the son of Nethanel the scribe, who 
was of the Levttes," answers Zachary, "wrote 
them in the presence of the king, and the princes, 
and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of 
Abiathar, and the heads of the fathers' houses of 
the priests and of the Levites ; one father's house 
being taken for Eleazar, and one taken for Itha- 
mar. Now the first lot came forth to Jehojarib, 
the second to Jedajah, the third to Harim, the 
fourth to Seorim, the fifth to Malchijah, the sixth 
to Mijamin, the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to 
Abijah, the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Sheca- 
niah, the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim, 
the thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jes- 



20 A BAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

hebeab, the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to 
Immer, the seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth 
to Happizzez, the nineteenth to Petahiah, the 
twentieth to Jehezkel, the one and twentieth to 
Jachin, the two and twentieth to Gamul, the three 
and twentieth to Delaiah, the four and twentieth 
to Maaziah. This, my son, was the ordering of 
them in their service, to come into the house of 
the Lord according to the ordinance given unto 
them by the hand of Aaron their father, as the 
Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded him." 

" Before David's time our genealogical registers 
must have been greatly confused," observes 
Samuel. 

" My son," patiently corrects Zachary, " king 
David was not the first to divide the priests into 
definite courses; the tradition of our fathers traces 
a similar division up to Moses, who is variously 
supposed to have arranged the sons of Aaron into 
eight or sixteen courses, to which on the one suppo- 
sition, Samuel and David each added other eight 
courses, or, on the other, Samuel and David in 
conjunction the eight needed to make up the 
twenty-four which I mentioned a moment ago." 

" Thou hast as yet said nothing of the Botte- 
Aboth or subdivisions, Mar," interrupts Samuel, 
" into which each of the twenty-four main divis- 
ions seems to be split up." 

"The twenty-four courses," explains Zachary, 
" were at first called Machlekoth or divisions, 
Botte-Aboth or houses of fathers, Mishmaroth or 
watches. The first name merely indicates the 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 21 

generic idea of division ; the second signifies that 
the division is made according to families; the 
third name denotes the office or service which each 
division is obliged to render in the Temple for a 
week at a time, whenever its turn of ministry de- 
mands it. The week of service, now as formerly, 
extends from Sabbath to Sabbath, the outgoing 
course offering the morning sacrifice, the entering 
course renewing the shew-bread and performing 
all the subsequent duties. On the Sabbath itself 
the whole course ministers ; on feast-days any 
priest belonging to any of the twenty- four courses 
is admitted for service ; on the Feast of Taber- 
nacles all the twenty- four courses are on duty." 

" Great, indeed," exclaims Samuel, " and im- 
pressive to behold must be the solemnity sustained 
by the sacerdotal functions of so many thousand 
priests. Truly may our Doctors say that he has 
never seen joy who has not seen the gladness 
of the Feast of Tabernacles." After this reflec- 
tion Samuel draws Zachary's attention to the 
fact that he has not yet explained the priests' 
division into families. 

" The service of the week is divided," resumes 
Zachary, " among the various families which con- 
stitute a course or Mishmar. If the course on 
duty consists of five families, three serve each one 
day of the week, and two each two days; if 
of six families, five serve each one day, and one 
two days ; if of eight families, six serve each one 
day, and the other two jointly on one day, or if 
lastly of nine families, five serve each one day, 



22 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

and the four others serve in pairs on two days. 
All the particulars regarding the weekly service 
are arranged by the Sarim or princes of the 
courses, and the Rashim or heads of the families. 
For as Mishmar denotes a whole course, and 
Beth-Ab a single family belonging to the course, 
so Rosh-Hammishmar and Rosh-Beth-Ab signify 
the chief of a course and of a family respectively." 

" Malachy's command," observes Samuel, " that 
the priests' lips should keep knowledge, and that 
all should seek the law at his mouth has not 
been neglected by thee ; being about to enter the 
number of messengers of the Lord, I must en- 
deavor to follow thy good example not less than 
thy verbal instructions. But it pains me exceed- 
ingly to see thee so weak and feeble. Thy ill- 
health seemed to all of us a sufficient excuse for 
not going up to the Temple." 

" Son," says Zachary, " the time of our Temple- 
service is a sacred time. The Law enjoins that 
priests come up to Jerusalem at the due seasons, 
properly washed and attired. While actually on 
service in the Temple, we are not allowed to 
drink wine, either by day or by night. The fami- 
lies of the course in attendance at Jerusalem which 
are not actually on duty, are also prohibited the 
use of wine except by night. Those priests who 
stay away, or are prevented from going up to 
Jerusalem at the time prescribed, must meet in 
the synagogues of their district, and pray and 
fast each day of their week of service, except on 
the sixth, the seventh and the first. For the 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 23 

Sabbath-joy prevents a fast not only on the day 
itself but also on the day preceding and following 
it. How then can I exempt myself from Jeho- 
vah's special service, when the whole course of 
Abijah fills the holy places of the Lord, and sings 
morning and evening the canticles of our fathers? " 

"Ezra tells us," here interrupts Samuel, "that 
only four courses of priests returned from the 
Babylonian captivity : the children of Jedajah, of 
the house of Jeshua, nine hundred seventy and 
three ; the children of Immer, a thousand fifty and 
two ; the children of Pashur, a thousand two hun- 
dred forty and seven ; the children of Harim, a 
thousand and seventeen.* Thou didst tell me a 
short while ago that our priestly clan has not been 
legally adopted instead of Abijah's course which 
did not return from Babylon. How then can we 
belong to the course of Abijah? " 

" Only the children of Jedajah, Immer, Pashur 
and Harim, numbering in all four thousand two 
hundred and eighty-nine men returned with 
Zerubbabel from Babylon," explains Zachary. 
" But Nehemiah f mentions as many as twenty- 
two chiefs of the priests at the time of Zerubbabel 
and Jeshua. The same classes of divisions are 
met with at the time of Jeshua's successor 
Jojakim the high priest.J; Even some eighty 
years later the above four families comprised the 
whole body of the priesthood, as we learn from 

* I. Ezra, II. 36-39. 

t XII. 1-7. 

X Nehemiah XII. 12-21. 



24 A DAY IiV THE TEMPLE. 

"Ezra. * who is believed to have brought two more 
courses of priests with him from Babylon. Shortly- 
after, Nehemiah f enumerates twenty-one heads 
of priests, but only fourteen of these names are 
identical with the names of the previous lists. 
The organization of the priestly courses must, 
therefore, have undergone certain modifications 
in those times, so that the tradition of our fathers 
regarding this matter is in keeping with the records 
of the Ketubim." 

"What thou sayest, Mar," interrupts Samuel, 
" renders it still more evident that without adop- 
tion the members of our course could never 
have been said to belong to Abijah. Or must I 
assume that Abijah's return from Babylon is one 
of the modifications delivered to us by the tradi- 
tion of the fathers?" 

" Only four courses of service came back from 
the exile, my son," eagerly responds Zachary, 
"viz.: Jedajah, Harim, Pashur and Immer. But 
the prophets that were among them arose and 
made twenty-four lots and put them into an 
urn. And Jedajah came up and drew five lots, 
which, including himself, would make six. And 
Pashur came and drew five lots, which, including 
himself, would made six. And Immer came and 
drew five lots, which, including himself, would 
make six. And Harim came and drew five lots, 
which, including himself, would make six. Then 
heads of the courses of service were appointed. 

* X. 18-22. 
t X. 3-9. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 25 

And the courses were divided into houses. And 
there were courses consisting of five, six, seven, 
eight or nine houses.* The ancient names were 
also given to the twenty-four new courses thus 
formed ; thus we are only in name of the course 
of Abijah, though really we do not belong to that 
family, even by legal adoption." 

While thus discussing their priestly pedigree, 
Zachary and Samuel reach the lower part of 
Mount Olivet. The first impression Jerusalem 
makes on one coming from the north, west, or 
south, may be summed up in the simple expression 
of a modern traveler : " I am strangely affected, 
but greatly disappointed." But the approach to 
Jerusalem from the east is really grand. By this 
way came sixty years before the period now 
under consideration, the first western army that 
ever confronted the Holy City, under the leader- 
ship of Pompey ; by this way too Jesus will enter 
in triumph on that celebrated tenth day of Nisan, 
some thirty years from now. 

" Great is the Lord," breaks out Zachary, "and 
highly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his 
holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of 
the whole earth, is Mount Zion ; on the sides of 
the north, the city of the great king." f 

" Let Mount Zion be glad, let the daughters of 
Jerusalem rejoice," responds Samuel ; " walk 
about Zion, and go round about her: tell the tow- 



* Jer. Taanith, IV. fol. 
t Ps. XLVII. 1, 2. 



26 A DAT m THE TEMPLE. 

ers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider 
her palaces ; that ye may tell it to the generation 
following. For this God is our God for ever and 
ever: he will be our guide even unto death."* 

" I was glad when they said unto me," re-echoed 
Zachary, " let us go into the house of the Lord. 
Our feet are standing within thy gates, O Jerusa- 
lem ; Jerusalem, thou art builded as a city that is 
compact together : whither the tribes go up, even 
the tribes of the Lord, for a testimony unto Israel, 
to give thanks unto the name of the Lord." f 

" Mar," says Samuel, " how do these thy words 
apply to the Holy City? " 

" How canst thou fail to understand their mean- 
ing, when their practical application is before thy 
very eyes ? Thou seest the deep ravines of Hin- 
nom and of the Kedron encircling the city on 
three sides, like a natural fosse. Only over yon- 
der, at its northwestern side, is the city bound as 
it were to the mainland. Thou seest also the 
four hills on which Jerusalem is built : the deep 
Tyropceon, -first runs from south to north, separ- 
ating Mount Zion to the west, from Mount Moriah 
to the east ; then turning sharply westward, it 
separates Mount Zion to the south from Mount 
Acra to the north ; the Hasmonsean valley simi- 
larly divides Mount Acra to the west from 
Bezetha to the east, while an artificial fosse sep- 
arates Mount Moriah to the south from Bezetha 
to the north. Truly then might the royal 

* Ps. XL VIII. 11-14. 
t Ps. CXXII. 1-4. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 27 

prophet sing : * Jerusalem, thou art builded as a 
city joined companion-like together.' " 

Zachary might equally well have referred the 
words " mark well her bulwarks, consider her 
palaces " to Jerusalem .alone. Though the whole 
city is only about thirty-three stadia, or nearly 
four miles, in circumference, it has the appearance 
of an immense natural fortress. The deep valleys 
form so many natural moats, making of the four 
hills a series of fortress islands. Besides all this, 
there are at the time we now speak of, two city 
walls: the first runs from the western colonnade 
of the Temple on Mount Moriah along the northern 
brow of Zion, to the tower Hippicus, then along the 
west and south of Zion, and continues eastward 
till it merges into the southeastern angle of the 
Temple. Thus it defends Zion, Ophel, and to- 
gether with the Temple walls, also Moriah. The 
second wall runs from the gate Genath, first north, 
then east, and terminates at the tower Antonia, at 
the northwest corner of the Temple. The first 
wall is further defended by sixty towers, the sec- 
ond wall by forty. Hippicus, Phasaelus and 
Mariamne have been named already as being sit- 
uated on the northwestern side of Zion. The re- 
shaped tower of Antonia, seventy cubits high, is 
placed on a rocky elevation of fifty cubits, at the 
northwestern angle of the Temple. It communi- 
cates with the castle of Antonia by a double set 
of cloisters, with the Temple itself by a subterra- 
nean passage and also by stairs descending into 
the western porches of the Court of Gentiles. By 



28 A DAY IN" THE TEMPLE. 

this way, the chief captain Lysias, will rush to the 
rescue of St. Paul in order to save him from the 
infuriated multitude of Jewish zealots. 

But Jerusalem is not merely a fortress, but 
also a city of palaces. In the whole civilized 
world there is no city like Jerusalem for architec- 
tural splendor. Syrian Antioch, imperial Rome 
and classic Athens have to yield in this respect to 
Zion and Moriah. High up, on the northwestern 
side of Mount Zion, which itself rises more than 
seventy cubits above Mount Moriah, though it is 
about sixty-six cubits lower than the summit of 
Mount Olivet, stands the royal palace of Herod, 
on the ancient site of the castle of David. The 
high priest's palace crowns the opposite or north- 
eastern height of Mount Zion. On the eastern 
brow, south of the high priest's palace, is the im- 
mense Xystus, extending deep into the Tyropceon 
valley. Surrounded by a covered colonnade, it 
serves as a place of public meeting, whenever 
great numbers are to be addressed. Near by is 
David's ancient palace ; here the Maccabees have 
held their sway, and soon Agrippa will be master. 
Again, in its rear, stands Bernice's palace. On 
the southern slope of Mount Acra is the Reposi- 
tory of the Archives, and opposite it, on the other 
side of the cleft, probably abutting on the Temple, 
we see the council chamber of the Sanhedrin. 
Palaces of foreign princes, especially of such as 
have become Jewish proselytes, cover the heights 
of Mount Acra. The Hippodrome, south of the 
Temple on Mount Moriah, and the great sheep 



A DAT IJST THE TEMPLE. 29 

market, on the southeastern corner of the Temple, 
the Amphitheater, in the far northwestern part of 
the city, and the four hundred and eighty syna- 
gogues built in various quarters throughout Jeru- 
salem, the magnificent pillars and monuments, the 
pools of Siloam and Bethesda, and finally the in- 
numerable public buildings that adorn every 
street and thoroughfare, are too well known to 
need description. " Mark well her bulwarks, 
consider her palaces, that ye may tell the genera- 
tion following." 

But in this city of marble and cedar-covered 
palaces, the Temple-mount stands alone and 
unrivaled in its grandeur. Terrace upon terrace 
its courts ascend, and on its summit stands the 
Temple itself, high above the city, in the midst of 
marble cloisters, richly ornamented, while the 
brightness of its gold-plated walls blinds the 
spectator with its radiance when beheld in the 
light of the rising sun. 

" I was glad when they said unto me," repeats 
Samuel, "let us go into the house of the Lord; 
our feet are standing within thy gates. How is it 
adorned with goodly stones and offerings ! What 
manner of stones, and what manner of build- 
ings!" 

" Alas," sighs Zachary, " who is left among us 
that saw this house in its former glory ? and how 
do we see it now? is it not in our eyes as 
nothing ? " 

" If thou quotest the prophet," replies Samuel, 
" thou must quote the whole prophet. * Yet now 



30 A.DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

be strong all ye people of the land, for I am with 
you, saith the Lord of hosts ; yet once it is a little 
while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth 
and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all 
nations, and the desired of all nations shall come, 
and I will fill this house with glory, saith the 
Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall 
be greater than the former, saith the Lord of 
hosts ; and in this place will I give peace, saith the 
Lord of hosts. ' " 

" Whatever future glory may be in store for the 
house of the Lord," answers Zachary, " the words 
of Asaph have been verified for the present : O 
God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance ; 
thy holy Temple have they defiled. And though 
they have not laid Jerusalem on heaps, nor given 
the dead bodies of thy servants to be meat unto 
the fowls of heaven, or the flesh of thy saints to 
the beasts of the earth, still we are become a 
reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to 
them that are round about us. How long, O 
Lord ! wilt thou be angry for ever ? Shall thy 
jealousy burn like fire ? Pour out thy wrath upon 
the heathen that know thee not, and upon the 
kingdoms that call not upon thy name." 

Samuel sincerely confesses that he does not 
understand the reason of Zachary's lamentation. 
" Is not the Temple rebuilt more magnificently 
than ever ? is not even now Herod priding himself 
in the splendor and magnificence of the Lord's 
house? and are not those hundreds of workmen 
and masons who busily swarm around the outer 



A DAT ffl TEE TEMPLE. 31 

wall, engaged in beautifying and enlarging the 
special inheritance of Jehovah ? " 

" Truly," says Zachary, " thy bones are full of 
the foolishness of thy youth. When fourteen years 
ago Herod began the work of building, priests 
and people rose up in a body and protested against 
his bold attempt. A thousand priests were, how- 
ever, provided with new sacerdotal garments, and 
some of them were instructed in the arts of stone- 
cutters and carpenters; then ten thousand most 
skilled workmen were selected, one thousand 
wagons gotten ready and the Temple of Zerub- 
babel was pulled down, part after part.' , 

" Mar," says Samuel, " if thou speakest truth, 
what shall become of the prophecy of Haggai, 
according to which the latter glory of the second 
Temple is to be greater than that of the first? do 
not our teachers tell us that this greater glory will 
result from the presence of king Messiah in the 
second Temple ? and now the second Temple has 
passed away, and king Messiah has not entered 
it." 

" Son," replies Zachary, "be not rash with thy 
mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter 
anything before God. When this house of 
Jehovah was building, they made curtains for the 
Temple and curtains for the court ; and then they 
built the walls of the Temple outside the curtains, 
but those of the court inside the curtains. Thus 
the ordinances of the worship were continued 
while the Temple was building ; the sacrifices 
were not interrupted, nor were any of the sacred 



32 A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 

vessels and implements displaced. During the 
same time it did not rain in the day-time, but the 
showers fell in the night, so that the work was 
not hindered. Thus the Temple itself, Holy of 
Holies, Holy and Vestibule, were built by the 
priests in a year and six months, upon which all 
the people were full of joy. And presently they 
returned thanks to God. They feasted and cele- 
brated this restoration of the Temple, and were 
especially glad that the continuance of God's 
house had not been interrupted. The king him- 
self sacrificed three hundred oxen to God, and 
the rest, every one according to his ability. The 
number of these sacrifices I cannot give, for no one 
could count them." 

" And was there hammer or axe or tool of iron 
heard, while the Lord's house was building ? " 
asks Samuel. 

" The house was built of stone," replies 
Zachary, " made ready in the quarry ; and 
there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool 
of iron heard in the house while it was build- 
ing-" 

Zachary's answer was, no doubt, perfectly in- 
telligible to Samuel. Had he not often been told 
that when his grandfather Josiah, together with 
the members of the Sanhedrin, was slain by 
Herod's servants, his father Ananiah had been 
concealed in the quarry for three days ? It 
was owing to the exertions of Zachary that Ana- 
niah escaped from that den, now called the 
" Cotton Grotto," and situated near the present 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 33 

Gate of Damascus. In 1852 an opening was acci- 
dentally discovered in a rubbish heap. One 
could enter it only by stooping and letting oneself 
drop down to the floor. Of late, the rubbish heap 
has been cleared away. First, one sees a rough 
floor of earth, and then solid rock. Huge stones 
lie scattered about in the heart of the quarry with 
mason's marks abounding on them. The marks 
appear so fresh that one quite fancies it must be 
dinner hour, and the workmen will return ere 
long. A huge mass of stone chippings makes it 
plain that the stones were dressed in this place. 
And those red marks ! Early explorers of the 
foundation walls of the Temple were sorely puz- 
zled over the mysterious letters and marks found 
in the tunnels which they drove along the ancient 
groundworks. Now we understand the Phenician 
lettering and numbering, containing instructions 
for the masons where to lay each stone. Did 
Herod employ Phenician workmen at the Temple, 
or must all of these Phenician builder directions 
be referred back to about three thousand years 
ago, when Solomon erected his Temple under the 
supervision of Hiram ? The modern estimate that 
the weight of single stones in the foundation walls 
amounts to a hundred tons, and that their length 
is in several instances thirty-eight feet nine inches, 
fully explains Samuel's admiration of the stones. 

" Lord, I have called upon thee; make haste 
unto me," exclaims Zachary. " Let my prayer be 
set forth as incense before thee ; the lifting up of 
my hands as the evening sacrifice." 
3 



34 A DAY IN" THE TEMPLE. 

The smoke of the evening sacrifice is even now 
curling up slowly against the blue western sky. 
The music of the sacred services is wafted across 
the Kedron valley and re-echoes on the heights 
of Mount Olivet. 

" Truly," rejoins Samuel, " thou leddest them in 
a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by 
night, to give them light in the way wherein they 
should go. The pillar of cloud departed not 
from over them by day, to lead them in the way; 
neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them 
light, and the way wherein they should go." 

" Forty years didst thou sustain them in the 
wilderness, and they lacked nothing ; their clothes 
waxed not old, and their feet swelled not," con- 
tinued Zachary ; " nor has thy care over thy peo- 
ple ceased, since they are in possession of the land. 
Never has adverse accident interrupted the serv- 
ices of the sanctuary, nor profaned the offerings. 
Never has rain extinguished the fire on the altar, 
nor contrary wind driven back the smoke of the 
sacrifices. Never has the crowd of worshipers 
wanted room to bow down before Jehovah and to 
worship before the God. of Israel. Never has any 
one in Jerusalem lacked the means of celebrating 
the Passover, nor has any pilgrim lacked a bed on 
which to rest. Never has serpent or scorpion 
hurt within the precincts of the Holy City, nor 
did ever fire or ruin desolate her streets. Verily, 
the Lord dwelleth in safety by Benjamin, and 
Judah hath been brought in unto his people." 

" Mar," says Samuel, "the words of Moses pro- 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 35 

ceeding from thy mouth, have ever been a riddle 
to me. Why is it said of Benjamin that the be- 
loved of the Lord dwelleth in safety by him ? and 
of Judah that the Lord will bring him unto his 
people ? " 

" How can a youth understand the blessing 
wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the 
children of Israel before his death," replies 
Zachary, " unless it be explained to him by the 
mouth of the ancients ? Know then and under- 
stand that the porch, the sanctuary of the Temple 
and the altar of burnt-offerings are in Benjamin, 
while the courts of the women, of the Israelites 
and of the priests are situated in the lot of Judah. 
Hence the Lord and his beloved dwell in safety 
by Benjamin, and the congregation of the faithful 
is brought together in Judah." 

"Surely," exclaims Samuel, " Solomon was 
wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and 
Chalcol, and Darda the sons of Mahol. Still I 
cannot understand why he built the Temple on 
such an uneven place. We were told in the Beth- 
Middrash that the summit of Moriah is one hun- 
dred and eight cubits higher than the ridge of the 
rock at the northeast angle of the Temple-mount, 
and one hundred cubits higher than the rock at its 
northwest angle, and one hundred and nine cubits 
higher than the same rock at the southwest corner. 
Why, nearly the whole platform on which it 
stands, seems to be raised by means of walls, 
arches and huge stone pillars." 

" My son," replies Zachary in a tone of mild re- 



36 A DAY IJST THE TEMPLE. 

buke, "the knowledge of the Greeks and Gentiles 
is growing, but the memory of our prophets is 
daily decreasing. Do we not read in the Book of 
Samuel that Gad the prophet came to David, and 
said to him : ' Go up, rear an altar unto the Lord 
oathe threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite ? ' 
So David bought the threshing-floor, and built 
there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt- 
offerings and peace-offerings. And when Solo- 
mon erected the house of the Lord, he built it 
over the same threshing-floor of Araunah. But as 
all threshing-floors are on the highest points of 
hills and ridges, so was Araunah's on the very 
summit of Moriah. Nor could the height be cut 
down to obtain a large area for the intended Tem- 
ple. That summit was sacred ; for the angel of the 
Lord had stood on it, when David prayed unto 
the Lord to stay the pestilence that carried off 
seventy thousand men of Israel within the space 
of three days. The huge wall, the arches and the 
other supports became thus absolutely necessary, 
if the newly erected Temple was to leave the 
threshing-floor intact." 

"There are other questions, Mar," continued 
Samuel, " that have frequently perplexed me, and 
no one has given me a clear answer. In the 
Psalms * we read, * There is a river the streams 
whereof make glad the city of God, the holy place 
of the tabernacles of the Most High.' And again,f 
' They that sing as well as they that dance shall 

* XLVI. 4f. 
f LXXXVII. 7. 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 37 

say, all my fountains are in thee.' Isaiah, too, 
speaks of drawing water out of the wells of salva- 
tion,* and Ezekiel is most explicit of all in main- 
taining that the Temple of the Lord should abound 
in water : ' And he brought me back unto the door 
of the house; and behold waters issued out from 
under the threshold of the house eastward. And 
the waters came down from under, from the right 
side of the house, on the south of the altar. Then 
brought he me out by the way of the gate north- 
ward, and led me round by the way without, unto 
the outer gate, by the way of the gate that look- 
eth toward the east ; and, behold, there ran out 
waters on the right side. When the man went 
forth eastward with the line in his hand, he meas- 
ured a thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass 
through the waters, waters that were to the ankles. 
Again he measured a thousand, and caused me to 
pass through the waters, waters that were to the 
knees. Again he measured a thousand and caused 
me to pass though the waters, waters that were to 
the loins. Afterward he measured a thousand ; 
and it was a river that I could not pass through ; 
for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a 
river that could not be passed through." f 

" Son," replies Zachary, u this is not a ques- 
tion of words and names. You learn in the Beth- 
Midrash too much Gentile wisdom which puffeth 
up without satisfying the spirit. Do not the 
Psalms and the Prophets typify every kind of 

* XII. 3. 

t XLVII. 1-5. \ 



38 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

blessing by water ? As, therefore, the source of 
a stream is the cause of growth and fruitfulness, 
and beauty to the whole adjacent plain, so is the 
Temple the only source of temporal and spiritual 
blessings, which God's goodness has bestowed 
on our nation, and on the world at large. 
Isaiah points out the principal source whence 
even our Temple receives its power of benedic- 
tion. For the wells of salvation are none other 
than the merits and the graces of the king 
Messiah." 

" In reality, then, the Temple is placed on a 
thirsty hili," infers Samuel from Zachary's typical 
explanation ; " I had always imagined that Mount 
Moriah was really to Jerusalem what pure water 
is to a thirsty soul." 

" The Scriptures may be said to be true even in 
a material and literal sense," resumes the old 
priest; "yonder, across the brook at our feet, is 
the Pool of Siloam. We see its length and its 
width, thirty-four cubits by twelve, but its depth 
is hidden from our view. At its north end, a small 
tunnel opens in the rock, bringing the water from 
the fountain Rogel, on the border line between 
the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Now this is : 
the history of the tunnel which brings the water 
from Rogel to Siloam, down in the valley, through 
a passage measuring eleven hundred and forty 
cubits, though the straight course is only seven 
hundred and thirty-six cubits. While the excava- 
tors were lifting up the pick, each towards the 
other, and while there were yet three cubits to be 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 39 

broken through, the voice of one called to his 
neighbor — for there was an excess in the 'rock 
on the right. They rose up, they struck on the 
west of the excavation, the excavators struck, each 
to meet the other, pick to pick. And then flowed 
the waters from their outlet to the pool, for a dis- 
tance of a thousand cubits, and three-fourths of a 
cubit was the height of the rock over the excava- 
tion. At its lowest, however the tunnel runs one 
hundred and four cubits below the surface." 

" Here, then, is Rogel at which the faithful 
Jonathan and Achimaas stayed and learned from 
a maid the counsel Chusai had given to Absalom," 
observes Samuel, speaking to himself rather than 
to his companion. 

" Isaiah too speaks of that fountain," adds 
Zachary, " and represents it as a symbol of 
David's royal house, when he says : ' The people 
hath cast away the waters of Siloam that go 
softly.' For thou must remember that the slope 
of the tunnel is very gentle, so that the water al- 
ways flows very leisurely. Nehemiah, describing 
how he went out by night to view the walls of 
Jerusalem, calls Rogel the dragon-fountain." 

<f Behold, Mar, those women with the water 
jars disappear within the fountain," exclaims 
Samuel. 

" Where thou seest the women descend," 
quietly remarks Zachary, " there are two flights 
of steps hewn in the rock, which lead down to the 
water. Though the water seems to issue from 
under the second step, it is really believed to 



40 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

come from under the Temple. Hence, thou un- 
derstandest, my son, why on the Feast of Taber- 
nacles, at the time of the morning sacrifice, a 
priest accompanied by a joyous procession with 
music, goes down to the Pool of Siloam, to draw 
three logs of water in a golden pitcher. When 
his brethren carry up the pieces of the victim to 
lay them on the altar, the priest re-enters the 
Water-Gate, and is received by a threefold blast 
of the silver trumpets. He then ascends the 
altar and turns to the left, where there are two 
silver basins with narrow holes — the eastern 
somewhat wide for the wine, and the western 
narrower for the water. Into these the wine of 
the drink-offering is poured, and at the same time 
the water from Siloam. Meanwhile the people 
cries out to the priest : * Raise thy hand.' For 
they are anxious to see the water flowing into the 
basin." 

" You do not imply, Mar," resumed Samuel, 
" that the whole water supply of the Temple is 
drawn from Rogel and the Pool of Siloam? A 
single fountain cannot furnish all the water daily 
used in the sacred service and satisfy, besides, the 
needs of all the water-carriers who are even now 
surrounding Rogel." 

" Our understanding, son, is not the limit of the 
power of nature or of God. Still, thou rightly 
supposest that there is another source of water 
supply in the Temple besides Rogel. Of the 
latter I have spoken first, because its waters best 
illustrate the living waters which Ezekiel saw pro- 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 41 

ceeding from under the Temple. The aqueduct 
which supplies the Temple is more than three 
hundred and twenty stadia in length, and derives 
its waters from three sources ; from the hills about 
Hebron, from Ethan, and from the three pools of 
Solomon. The abundance of the supply may be 
gathered from the following facts which were 
communicated to us last year, at the season of 
the long drought, in order to allay our fear for the 
sacrificial supply. The overflow of Ethan, when 
drained into the Lower Pool of Gihon, presents an 
area of nearly four acres of water. Besides, the 
whole Temple-mount is perfectly honey-combed 
with rock-hewn cisterns, in which the water from 
Solomon's pools, near Bethlehem, is stored. The 
cisterns are connected by a series of channels cut 
in the rock, so that when one is full, the water 
runs into the next, and so on, till the final over- 
flow is carried off by a channel into the Kedron. 
One of the cisterns, called the Great Sea, contains 
two million gallons, and the total number of gal- 
lons that can be stored exceeds ten millions." 

Here the conversation of our friends is sud- 
denly interrupted by a scene peculiar to Jerusa- 
lem. A group of persons approaches the tomb 
of Absolom, dragging with them two wayward 
boys, apparently about ten years of age. There 
is a scuffle and an angry cry, and then the 
whole party takes its stand in front of the monu- 
ment. To any one versed in Jewish customs the 
whole proceeding is fully intelligible. Do not the 
Rabbis from the earliest ages enjoin : " If any one 



42 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

in Jerusalem has a disobedient child, he shall take 
him out to the valley of Jehoshaphat, to Absolom's 
Monument, and force him, by words or stripes, to 
hurl stones at it, and to curse Absolom, mean- 
while telling him the life and fate of that rebellious 
son?" An avenging providence has thus really 
turned Absolom's endeavor to perpetuate his name 
into his everlasting disgrace. For we read in the 
second Book of Kings* that Absolom, in his life- 
time, had reared up for himself a pillar which 
is in the king's dale ; for he said : I have no 
son to keep my name in remembrance; and he 
called the pillar after his own name ; and it is 
called to this day Absolom's place. Impressed 
with this sad spectacle, and without regarding the 
tomb of Jehoshaphat to the east, or the tomb now 
called after St. James the Less, about one hundred 
cubits south, or the tomb of Zechariah, by the 
south entry of the former, the two priests turn 
their face to Jerusalem, resolved to enter the Holy 
City without further delay. 

From the Temple-mount to the western base of 
Olivet, it is not more than two or three hundred 
cubits straight across, though the distance to the 
summit of Mount Olivet is about half a mile, or ac- 
cording to Josephus, five furlongs. Since Olivet is 
always fresh and green, and the coolest, the pleas- 
antest, the most sheltered walk about Jerusalem, 
the throng of people passing hither and thither over 
the bridge across the Kedron, is no matter of 

* XVIII. 18. 



A DAY 7i\T THE TEMPLE. 43 

astonishment. To Olivet's shady retreats the in- 
habitants of Jerusalem often come to recreate or 
meditate. Among its groves of myrtle, pine, 
cypresses and cedars Jochanan ben Zaccai, one of 
the most celebrated Rabbis, will soon teach his 
numerous class of pupils. 

Zachary and Samuel pass on among the crowd, 
across the Kedron, into the broad evening shadows 
of the Temple and its mountain. At times, a 
demure Pharisee or a long-robed scribe salutes 
the old priest in the solemn oriental fashion, a 
process which delays our wayfarers considerably. 
A certain patronizing air marks, however, even 
the slightest signs of courtesy extended by the 
proud Jerusalemites to the childless country- 
priest. Passing into the city, they first ascend the 
steep street of the lower Ophel, the quarter of the 
Nethinim, or Temple-slaves. Higher up, they 
enter the quarter of the priests and Levites ; but 
all along the road, Zachary is called and known 
as the husband of " Elizabeth the barren." A 
few steps more, and the travelers turn to the right 
of the narrow marble-paved street, cross the 
elevated foot-way running along the street for 
the use of the newly purified, and disappear in 
the entrance of a massive stone house belonging 
to Matthiah the prefect of lots. 



44 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

CHAPTER II. 

ABOUT THE COCKC ROWING. 

There was a gentle rap at the door of the sleep- 
ing apartment in the House of Stoves or the Beth- 
Moked. Matthiah the prefect of the lots was at 
the door. Standing in the dining room, he was 
surrounded by ten priests of the course of Abijah 
who had been on duty as watchmen during the 
night. For though the Hebrews divided the 
night into three, and later into four night-watches, 
lasting four and three hours respectively, they did 
not change the nightly Temple-guard. No 
sooner has Matthiah knocked, than the door is 
opened to him. Did Jesus allude to this custom, 
when He said : " Watch therefore ; for ye know 
not when the Lord of the house cometh, whether 
at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in 
the morning ? " * The words of the Rabbis render 
such an allusion very probable: " Sometimes he 
came at the cockcrowing, sometimes a little earlier, 
sometimes a little later," is the Rabbinic formula 
regarding the arrival of the prefect of the lots. 

" All ye who have washed, come and cast lots," 
says Matthiah glancing rapidly through the sleep- 
ing apartment. And a strange spectacle it pre- 
sents, a sight more amusing than interesting to a 
western observer. The scanty yellow light of a 
solitary lamp hanging from the ceiling reveals to 



* Mark XIII. 35. 



A DAY IN- THE TEMPLE. 45 

us, at first, a mass of stalwart men, thirty or more 
in number, all clad in white close-fitting tunics of 
linen, or byssus, reaching down to their heels, all 
wearing a kind of turban of the same material, 
and all girded with a broad byssus sash, having 
ornaments of purple, scarlet and blue embroidered 
upon it. The strict uniformity in all particulars, 
down to the narrow sleeves, shows us immediately 
that we have before us the pattern of the priestly 
attire. 

Allowing the men to pass, for they seem eager 
to begin their daily round of duties, we enter a 
moment and examine the sleeping apartment. 
The ceiling, we notice at once, is part of a vaulted 
roof, which must cover the whole one-storied 
building. The sides of the room are not per- 
pendicular, as they seemed at first, but they 
are merely sets of stone-stairs leading up 
almost to the very ceiling. The lowest step, 
broader than the succeeding ones, apparently 
serves as a bench. But the uppermost step is 
broadest of all. The tall figures which now 
begin to stir on it, show that it is a recess rather 
than a mere step or shelf. Abiathar the head of 
that division of Abijah's course, which will be on 
duty to-day, and a number of ancients belonging 
to the same division, descend from the top of the 
stone-stairs and proceed to a door in the north- 
eastern corner of the sleeping apartment. 

But what is moving in front of us, on the very 
floor ? We cannot be deceived ; there are more 
human forms stretched out at full length, and 



46 A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 

covered with their simlahs, their heads resting on 
pillows. Near the head of every one, there lies a 
small bundle of clothing which he snatches up as 
he rises and moves like the rest towards the door 
in the northeastern corner. If we may believe 
Matthiah, the little parcel contains the four pieces 
of priestly apparel ; the short breeches covering 
merely the hips and thighs, the alb, the girdle and 
the cap or turban. They are given by Pinchas 
the wardrobe-keeper to every priest, when he 
comes to the Temple on the eve of his daily 
ministry. 

And here rises Ben Gabar the chief door-keeper 
from his undignified place of nightly rest. Instead 
of going immediately to the door in the north- 
eastern corner, he takes hold of a stout iron ring 
on which he has been lying, and assisted by 
Matthiah he lifts up a thick marble slab, one cubit 
square, under which the Temple-keys are fastened 
to an iron chain. The keys are unfastened and 
then Ben Gabar follows his colleagues to the 
mysterious northeastern corner, where he disap- 
pears like the rest. 

We easily understand the reason why all the 
late risers pass through this same door. Descend- 
ing a spiral stairway, and passing through a long 
vaulted corridor, they come to their well appointed 
bathrooms. For no priest may enter upon his 
sacred services without having taken a bath in the 
morning. As soon as one has performed his 
legal ablution, he vacates the room for his succes- 
sor and goes to the furnace, where he dries him- 



A DAY IJST THE TEMPLE. 47 

self before the fire and then puts on his priestly- 
apparel. After this he may return through the 
same vaulted passage, lit up at both ends, and join 
his fellow-priests in the ministry. 

The morning bath renders the priest fit for a 
whole day's service ; but it must be renewed after 
every occasion of doing his needs. Moses's pre- 
cept, however, that "if any man's seed of copula- 
tion go out from him, then he shall bathe all his 
flesh in water, and be unclean until the even " is 
rigorously observed in the Temple. In such a 
case, the priest rises at night, takes his bath and 
returns to rest until the morning. Instead of join- 
ing the other priests in the sacred ministry, he 
must, in the morning, leave the Beth-Moked by 
its northern door — the others passing through the 
southern gate into the Court of Priests — and re- 
main the whole day at the eastern entrance to the 
Court of Women in order to show the passers-by 
that he is excluded from the ministry on account 
of some Levitical uncleanness. 

Leaving the late sleepers at their ablutions, we 
return to the crowd of eager men whom we met on 
entering with Matthiah the sleeping apartment of 
the Beth-Moked. They had risen early enough 
to perform their ablutions before the arrival 
of the prefect of the lots. In spite of his ad- 
vanced age, Zachary was of their number. Long 
ago should his nightly resting place have been 
among the elders on the uppermost shelf of Beth- 
Moked. But Abiathar has long been accustomed 
to neglect Zachary, because he has not raised 



48 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

seed in Israel. And again, Zachary is a good and 
contented old man who may be overlooked with 
impunity. For even in the Temple-courts of 
Jehovah the maxim that a contented man is happy 
anywhere, and that it would be a pity to disturb 
him, being happy where and as he is, makes itself 
felt. Zachary's pillow has, therefore, these many 
years remained on the floor among the very 
youngest of the officiating priesthood, while the 
discontented and the loud have obtained more 
than their rights. 

Matthiah opens the wicket in the large door which 
leads from the dining room into the Court of 
Priests, and all who are ready follow him into the 
outer darkness. Here they divide into two com- 
panies, each carrying a torch. For the Temple 
is lit up only on the Sabbath, when the torches 
may, therefore, be dispensed with. One company 
passes eastwards, the other westwards, to make 
the circuit of inspection. In order to follow 
them more intelligently, we must remember that 
the Temple-court is a rectangle, one hundred and 
eighty-seven cubits in length and a hundred and 
thirty-five cubits in width. A wall, twenty-five 
cubits high from the level of the Court of Priests, 
surrounds the whole, extending on the east side 
a hundred and thirty-five cubits beyond the Court 
of Israel, so as to inclose the Court of Women. 
A single porch, resting on a double row of col- 
umns, the height of which is forty cubits from 
their base, but only twenty-five cubits from the 
level of the Court of Priests, runs around the in- 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 49 

closed space in such a manner that the last row 
of columns is built into the wall. A balustrade, 
three cubits high, divides, on the east side, the 
Court of Priests from the Court of Israel. Both 
are one hundred and thirty-five cubits wide; but 
the former is a hundred and seventy-six cubits in 
length, while the latter is only eleven cubits 
long. 

The Beth-Moked from which the two compa- 
nies of priests start on their circuit of inspection, 
is situated in the northeastern corner of the Court 
of Priests. The company proceeding eastwards, 
along the northern wall, soon passes the Gate of 
Sacrifices and the Chamber Parvah. Here the 
skins of the sacrificed animals are salted, and the 
upper story contains the high-priest's bathrooms, 
Proceeding a little further, they pass the cham- 
ber containing the store of the sacrificial salt, and, 
close by, the Gate Nitzutz or Sparkgate, in the 
northeast corner of the Priests' Court. In the 
room above Nitzutz, ten more priests are prepar- 
ing to join their companions in their ministerial 
duties, though they have been watching all night. 
For we must keep in mind that three of the twen- 
ty-four night-guards of the Temple, must be 
supplied from the ranks of the priests : that in 
Beth-Moked, that in Nitzutz, and that in the 
Chamber Abtinas. Thirty priests and two hun- 
dred and ten Levites are, therefore, on duty every 
night. 

Leaving Nitzutz to the left, the company of 
patroling priests turns to the south, passing along 
4 



50 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

the balustrade which separates, at its eastern ex- 
tremity, the Priests' Court from that of the Israel- 
ites. The scanty light of the solitary torch does 
not reveal the boundary-line of the Court of Wom- 
en to our left or the Temple proper and the 
altar of burnt-offerings to our right. The dull 
footfall of the bare- footed priests on the marble 
flooring is the only sound perceptible throughout 
the vast expanse of the Temple buildings. Hence 
the Rabinnic answer to the question ; " What is 
the nightly cry in the Temple court ? " points to 
only one possible explanation : " It is the cry of 
the Levite who is beaten and has his clothes 
burned." For, according to rule, the guard who 
does not rise at the approach of the Temple-cap- 
tain and salute in the proper manner, or who is 
found asleep when on duty, is beaten and has his 
garments set on fire. Does St. John * allude to 
this rule when he says : " Blessed is he that 
watcheth and keepeth his garments ?" 

The second company of patroling priests has, 
meanwhile, passed from Beth-Moked along the 
western wall to its southern extremity, and there, 
turning to the east, has followed the southern 
boundary-line of the Priests' Court. In the south- 
western corner they passed the Wood-Gate ; 
through this the altar-wood is carried into its 
proper room. Above and beyond it, are the 
apartments of the high priest and the assembly 
chamber of the honorable members of the 



* Apoc. XVI. 15. 



A DAT m THE TEMPLE. 51 

" Priestly-Council " for affairs strictly connected 
with the Temple. Further east, Matthiah and his 
band passed the Gate of Firstlings through which 
the first-born fit for sacrifice were brought ; there 
was also the Chamber Golah with the water ap- 
paratus which filled and emptied the laver. And 
finally, in the southeastern corner of the court, 
Matthiah's torch revealed the Water-Gate through 
which the water was brought on the Feast of Tab- 
ernacles, and near by, the Gazith, or hall of square 
polished stones, where the Sanhedrin assembled. 
Matthiah here repeated : " All ye who have 
washed, come and cast lots." At the sound of 
these words, ten more young men, clad in Sacer- 
dotal attire, descended from the Chamber Abtinas 
above the Water-Gate, and joined the priestly 
patrol. They had been on guard during the 
night, and since there was a bathroom connected 
with the chamber, they could join the ministering 
priests without first going to the Beth-Moked for 
their morning bath. 

Matthiah's band now turns northwards, follow- 
ing the balustrade at the eastern extremity of the 
court and after a few seconds it meets the first com- 
pany coming southward, along the same balustrade. 
Those who are not too near the torches, or too 
much occupied with the cares of the new day, 
enjoy a most sublime spectacle. The sky over- 
head reminds one forcibly of the promise Abra- 
ham received, when he was told to look up to 
the stars, which, innumerable as they seemed, his 
posterity was to outnumber. The heavenly bodies 



52 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

do not merely shine afar,, like gems inlaid in the 
firmament, but they seem to hang down like 
lamps radiant with unspeakable splendor, and 
beyond them one looks away into the infinite. 
That the stars should be adored as so many 
divinities in the countries neighboring on Pales- 
tine, in Syria and Mesopotamia, at a time when 
God's revelation had grown dim, and religious 
error was rampant among most nations of the 
earth, seems as natural as the admiration of the 
child at the whirl of a leaf and at the flow of water. 
For it is not the lot of unassisted human nature 
to rise through nature up to nature's God, like 
David does in his royal psalms : " O Jehovah, our 
God, how excellent is thy name in all the earth ! 
Who hast set thy glory upon the heavens. When 
I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, 
the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained — - 
what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the 
son of man that thou visitest him ? " * And what 
weight of meaning do not the words of Balaam 
the son of Beor, acquire under such circumstances : 
" I see him, but not now: I behold him, but not 
nigh : there shall come forth a star out of Jacob, 
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall 
smite through the corners of Moab." f 

The two companies stand face to face. "Peace," 
the first salutes. "All in peace," the second 
answers. "It is well ! all is well ! " perhaps gives 
the meaning of these reports more accurately. 

* Ps. VIII. 1-4. 
+ Num. XXIV. 17. 



A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 53 

Then three priests are deputed to prepare the high 
priest's meat-offering. They pass through the 
% wide opening in the middle of the balustrade, 
descend two or three steps, each of which is half 
a cubit high, and crossing the Court of the 
Israelites, eleven cubits in width, they stand 
opposite the Nicanor Gate. Instead of passing 
through its heavy double doors, they turn to the 
right, and enter the chamber of the high priest's 
meat-offering. Here they mix one-tenth of an 
ephah of fine flour with oil. This mixture is then 
kneaded and baked in a flat pan, the Machabath, 
whence the whole, at a later period, will be known 
simply as the " baked " or the Chabitim. 

Matthiah, with his two companies of priests, 
turns to the Hall of Polished Stones or the Gazith, 
in the southeastern corner of the court, in order 
to determine by lot who is to cleanse and prepare 
the altar of burnt-offerings. ' In former times, this 
office was not so determined, but was decided by 
a kind of running match. The priest who first 
reached the altar had a right to perform this duty. 
For many years was this primitive way of deter- 
mining the proper person found sufficient, till on a 
certain day two priests claimed to have reached 
the altar at the same moment. A painful scene 
followed, and we are told that one of the rivals 
fell headlong on the marble floor from the circuit 
which ran around the altar of burnt-offerings, a 
height of six cubits. 

Arrived at the Gazith, all the priests stand in a 
circle around Matthiah, and the latter seizes the 



54 A DAY m THE TEMPLE. 

cap of the one most convenient to his reach. By- 
doing so, he binds himself to begin his count from 
the priest whose head he has uncovered. But is 
it not unlawful to count persons in Israel ? For 
this very reason, every one present lifts up one, 
two or three fingers to serve as the object of the 
count. Matthiah loudly and- distinctly says 
" seventy-two " — he might have named any other 
number as the decisive one — -and then counts 
the uplifted fingers till he reaches seventy-two. 
The lot falls on him whose fingers are counted 
last. A simpler way of determining by lot can 
hardly be imagined. 

Zachary and a few of his most elderly com- 
panions approach Abdiah on whom the lot has 
fallen, and tell him that the silver chafing- 
dish is deposited in the western corner between 
the altar and its inclined access, warning him at 
the same time not to touch it or any other sacred 
vessel before having washed his hands and feet. 
For the hands and feet must be washed each time, 
however often, the priests come for service into 
the Temple or its courts. Abdiah leaves Gazith 
immediately, and proceeds in the dark, without 
taking a light with him. The fire of the altar is 
supposed to give light sufficient for his purpose. 
As to the washing of hands and feet, the laver of 
brass is huge enough to be found without diffi- 
culty, even in the dark of night. Situated be- 
tween the altar and the porch of the Temple, a 
little to the south, it rests on twelve colossal lions ; 
it has been altered by Ben Catin so as to enable 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 55 

twelve priests to perform their ablutions at the 
same time. Drained every evening, because the 
water standing in the laver overnight would be 
legally unclean, it is filled in the morning by 
machinery, constructed by the same Ben Catin. 
Rabbinic fable has it that the sound of the ma- 
chinery as it fills the laver, can be heard as far as 
Jericho. Whatever truth there may be in this, 
the sound certainly admonishes the priests col- 
lected in the Gazith as well as those who are still 
in the Beth-Moked to keep themselves in readi- 
ness. Abdiah at the laver, laying the right hand 
on the right foot and the left hand on the left 
foot, allows the thin stream of water flowing from 
the nearest faucet to run over them successively. 
A turn of the spigot, and the ablution is per- 
formed. " He that is washed needeth not save to 
wash his feet, but is clean wholly." * 

In order to understand the further course of 
Abdiah, we have to keep in mind the peculiar 
construction of the altar of holocausts to which he 
proceeds. It forms, indeed, the most prominent 
object in the Court of Priests. A square of thirty- 
two cubits, built of unhewn stones, it rises "one 
cubit, and then narrows one cubit all around, so 
as to form a square of thirty cubits ; again it rises 
five cubits, and contracts another cubit all around, 
thus presenting the appearance of an outer circuit. 
Finally, it rises three more cubits, a pile twenty- 
eight cubits in length and twenty-eight cubits in 



* Joh. XIII. 10. 



56 A DAY IiV THE TEMPLE. 

breadth, after which it seems to form a level sur- 
face. Its four corners, however, bear each a 
prominence, called horn, a cubit long, a cubit 
broad, a cubit high. Not including the 
marginal spaces, the corners of which are 
occupied by the horns, the upper surface of the 
altar is a square of twenty-six cubits. But not 
even this space is wholly reserved for sacrificial 
purposes. A sunken footway, one cubit wide and 
two cubits deep, runs at the distance of one cubit 
from the sides all around the altar, giving the 
ministering priests a suitable circuit to walk in. 
The actual surface of the altar is, therefore, a square 
of twenty-four cubits. 

To sum up, the altar appears to consist of three 
parts : the base, thirty-two cubits square and one 
cubit high ; the middle part, thirty cubits square 
and five cubits high ; the top, twenty-eight cubits 
square and three cubits high. A look at the sur- 
face of the altar reveals three other characteristic 
features : the main part of the altar, a square of 
twenty-four cubits ; the footway surrounding the 
main part on all sides, one cubit wide and two 
cubits deep ; the external wall of the depressed 
circuit, one cubit thick and two cubits high, bear- 
ing on each of the four corners a horn, one cubit 
high, one cubit wide, one cubit long, and sur- 
rounding the whole altar except on the southern 
side where the inclined plane leads up to the 
altar. Here the wall of the groove is omitted, 
so as to give free access to the sacerdotal cir- 
cuit. 



A DAY IN- THE TEMPLE. 57 

But to return to Abdiah. No sooner has he 
washed his hands and feet, than he goes towards 
the southern part of the altar. Here he meets 
the inclined plane, thirty-two cubits long and six- 
teen cubits wide, which leads up to the priests' 
circuit. He first turns to the left and takes the 
silver chafing-dish which stands in the corner be- 
tween the inclined ascent and the altar, and then 
rapidly walks up to the fire place on the altar. 
Scraping the fire, he removes the burnt coals and 
deposits them, three palms east of the inclined 
plane and twelve yards north of its rise. Finally, 
without turning in the narrow circuit — he had en- 
tered it by the right side — he walks around the 
sacrificial square and regains the inclined plane by 
the left opening of the circuit. 

Abdiah's first service over, all the other priests 
advance from the Gazith to the laver to wash their 
hands and feet. Then taking shovels and three- 
pronged forks, they ascend the altar, move aside 
whatever remains of yesterday's sacrifices, and 
place the pieces on the sides of the altar. When 
the number of sacrifices offered on the previous 
day has been very great, the remaining pieces 
are deposited on the inclined plane. Next, the 
ashes are cleaned out and partly piled up on the 
round ash-heap in the middle of the altar, called 
" apple " from its spherical form. If to-day were 
a great feast-day, the ashes would remain on the 
altar, being reputed both an ornament and 
a certain sign that a great many sacrifices have 
been offered on the day preceding. As it is, part 



58 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

of the ashes is deposited in a place whence it will 
be removed during the course of the day. 

Before parting, look once more at the " apple." 
It presents a very ordinary appearance, rendered 
still less remarkable by the little light thrown on 
it from the gleaming coals of the altar. Zachary 
too considers it very carefully. He has read in the 
Midrash that this diminutive looking heap holds, 
at times, upwards of three hundred cors of ashes. 
Measuring with his eye the whole surface of the 
altar, he cannot understand how even the square 
of twenty-four cubits can hold that amount. 
For he has never realized that the Rabbinic Doc- 
tors avowedly exaggerate in three points : regard- 
ing the quantity of ashes contained in the " apple," 
the size of the grapes in the Temple-porch, and 
the precious veil. 

All the priests now descend from the altar, re- 
tiring by the left, and proceed to the Wood- 
Chamber, in the southwestern corner of the 
Temple-court. They return without delay, carry- 
ing each a certain amount of fuel. Abdiah, the 
foremost of all, bearing on his shoulder a log, is 
followed by Zachary and several other priests, all 
burdened with logs. The pieces on the shoulders 
and in the arms of the priests following these, are 
of a more diminutive size. Were it daylight, we 
should perceive that all the wood looks remarka- 
bly healthy ; it shows no trace of corruption, no 
mark of the woodworm. In fact, before it is 
brought to the Wood-Chamber, a number of 
priests not actually engaged in the ministry of the 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 59 

altar, examine it piece by piece, and reject every- 
thing infected with any sign of legal impurity. 

Abdiah places the great logs on the fire of hol- 
ocausts at the eastern side of the altar, while the 
other priests deposit their smaller pieces either on 
the same fire or on another at the northern side 
of the altar; the latter is constantly kept up to 
supply the means for kindling the fire of sacrifices 
and the fire of incense, in case they should be ex- 
tinguished. The fire of incense, kept on the south 
side of the altar, supplies the coals for the burning 
of incense in the inner Temple. Any kind of 
wood, excepting the vine and the cultivated olive, 
may serve as fuel for the eastern and the northern 
fires, though the wood of the fig, the nut and the 
wild olive is especially sought. Later Rabbis 
have given various reasons for the exclusion of 
the cultivated olive and the vine from the use of 
the altar. R. Papa says that they turn too soon 
into ashes ; others think that the many knurs and 
knarls found in them, would prevent their smoke 
from ascending perpendicularly ; Rabbi Acha, 
with a number of others, supposes that the vine 
and olive were excluded from this use, because 
they are the principal food-furnishing woods, and 
their sacrificial use would have proved very detri- 
mental to the community. The fuel for the fire 
of incense is the wood of the fig-tree, or accord- 
ing to some, of the wild fig-tree, because this kind 
of wood gives very solid and durable coals, such 
as are needed on the altar of incense. 

The three woodpiles, built in furnace-shape, 



60 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

being completed, the priests gather up the 
pieces of unburnt sacrifice, on the sides of the 
altar, and place them alongside the wood on the 
fire of burnt-offerings, set the three piles on fire, 
and leaving the altar by the left, return to the 
Gazith. 

Meanwhile, a singular conversation took place 
in the furnace room of the Beth-Moked. Abiathar 
had taken his morning bath in the most leisurely 
way possible. Before he completed his dress, all 
the priests had left the lower part of the House of 
Stoves, excepting Obed, his life -long companion, 
a Herodian and scribe by profession. 

" Didst thou see the son of the cursed Baby- 
lonian ? " Abiathar addresses his friend. 

" Thou sayest it," Obed replies in his dignified 
and calm manner. There is silence for several 
minutes, Obed looking abstractedly into the glow- 
ing fire, and Abiathar arranging his gray and 
venerable beard. 

" Why dost thou try my patience ? " resumes 
Abiathar, when he perceives that his companion 
will not continue his report without further in- 
quiry. " What thinkest thou of our plan ? " 

" It has failed, Abiathar," laconically answers 
Obed. 

" Thy speech is a sore trial for my soul," 
angrily says Abiathar. " Hast thou seen Salome, 
and informed her that Josiah's offspring is re- 
turned ? " 

" I have spoken to the king's sister, Abiathar," 
answers Obed; "I have heard from her own lips 



A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 61 

that Herod has given full permission for the 
restoration of Josiah's family." 

" Canst thou tell me this in cold blood ? " 
Abiathar rather hisses than speaks. "Remember- 
est thou not that through thy exertions Josiah was 
condemned to death with the other members 
of the Sanhedrin, was discovered in his safe hiding- 
place and dragged to the place of execution ? 
Hast thou forgotten that thy own hand has blotted 
Josiah's and Ananiah's names from the priestly 
registers, and has forged the legal transfer of his 
family estate to thy own name ? " 

"Abiathar," contemptuously answers Obed, "if 
I have shed blood once, I may shed it again ; what 
my hand has done in Josiah's case, it can do in 
thine own. Hast thou not trained me well in all 
the arts of deceit and cunning? Is it not for 
thee that I have exchanged the way of righteous- 
ness and the law of Jehovah with the crooked paths 
of sin and the tyranny of Herod ? Thou holdest 
the office that belonged to Josiah's family for 
ages, presidest in his place over the course of 
Abijah, sittest in his chair in the council of the 
Sanhedrin. My fortune will follow me to Rome, 
Antioch or Babylon ; if thou leavest Jerusalem, 
thou leavest all thy possession." 

" Let not thy mouth speak foolishness," sooth- 
ingly whispers Abiathar ; " Josiah's family is not 
yet restored. Its registers are destroyed, and as 
to Ananiah's wife, I have taken care not to have 
her name entered on the list of Israelites." 

" All thy care has been vain," simply retorts 



62 A DAY /iV THE TEMPLE. 

Obed. " Matthiah has procured Ismeria's genea- 
logical record from Babylon." 

" This must not be," excitedly exclaims Abia- 
thar. 

" The walls hear thee, friend," coolly remarks 
Obed. " It shall not be, if I can obtain possession 
of the document for a single moment." 

" Knowest thou who keeps the record ? " 
anxiously questions Abiathar. 

" That is my secret," replies Obed. " Keep 
thou Zachary from the room of Pinchas, when the 
priests change dress." 



CHAPTER III. 

THE SKY LIT UP AS FAR AS HEBRON. 

" Come and cast lots," again resounds Mat- 
thiah's stentorian voice, as soon as the priests are 
gathered in Gazith. A circle immediately forms 
around the prefect of the lots, the turban of one 
of the priests is seized, the fingers of the sacred 
ministers are raised, the stated number is counted 
off on the uplifted fingers, in a word, all is repeated 
that was done about the cockcrowing. Not less 
than thirteen offices are determined by the second 
lot. The priest on whom it falls, must slaughter 
the victim ; the one next to him must sprinkle the 
blood upon the altar; the third in order must 
remove the ashes from the altar of incense ; the 
fourth has to trim the lamps of the candlestick ; 
the fifth must carry the head and one of the hind 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 63 

legs of the victim to the altar ; the sixth must 
carry the two forelegs ; the seventh, the tail and the 
other hind leg ; the eighth, the breast and the 
neck; the ninth, the two sides; the tenth, the 
entrails ; the eleventh, the offering of fine flour ; 
the twelfth, the baked meat-offering of the high 
priest; the thirteenth, the wine for the drink- 
offering. 

" Ascend the pinnacle, and see whether the time 
of sacrifice is at hand," is Matthiah's next com- 
mand. Immediately one of the bystanders 
ascends the very highest place on the top of 
Nitzutz, and gazes towards the region of the 
rising sun. " The morning shineth," runs his 
report. The bright sky of Palestine causes the 
heat of the day to radiate very quickly, so that 
the nights are as remarkable for their cold as the 
days for their heat. Thousands of years ago 
Jacob complained of the " drought consuming him 
by day, and the cold by night." This intense 
cold condenses all the moisture of the night air 
into drops, so that a heavy fog rests in the 
morning, like a sea, on the plains and reaches far 
up the sides of hill and mountain. Hosea speaks 
of these " morning clouds and the early dew that 
go away." But all this changes with sun-rise. 
Looking down from Nitzutz towards the Dead 
Sea, we notice the billowy masses of vapor sway 
and break up as soon as the light streams on them 
over the purple mountains of Moab ; their shape 
and color change every moment in the kindling 
warmth of the sun, and instead of the whitish vap- 



64 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

ory color, which they had in the hollows of the 
landscape, they assume a fleecy, yellow tint on the 
slopes of the hills, then an opal and snowy bright- 
ness in the upper air, and finally they fade away 
into the unclouded sky. 

"Is the sky lit up as far as Hebron?" is Mat- 
thiah's next question. 

" The auroral column reaches as far as Hebron," 
the priest answers from the pinnacle. In fact, the 
oriental sun, suddenly rising above the horizon, 
appears like a cone of light. 

" Fetch the victim," Matthiah replies. The 
two priests destined to slaughter the victim, 
and sprinkle its blood upon the altar, pro- 
ceed to the Beth-Moked. Thus far we have 
become acquainted with only two apartments of 
the House of Stoves, the dining room and the 
sleeping apartment. But at its northwestern cor- 
ner, there is an apartment in which the lambs for 
the sacrifice are kept about four days before they 
are actually immolated. Hence, at least six 
lambs are constantly in readiness in the Beth- 
Moked, where, once a day, they are examined as 
to their fitness for the altar. Another examination 
takes place the night before their immolation, and 
the last one on the very morning on which they 
are offered. This last scrutiny is performed by 
torch-light, lest the victim should have contracted 
a legal irregularity during the course of the night. 

The priests not engaged in fetching the victim, 
are busy about preparing the ninety-three instru- 
ments needed for the legal performance of the 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 65 

sacrifice. The Rabbis differ as to the reasons 
why the number of the sacrificial implements 
amounts to ninety-three. The treatise Chagigah 
of the Jerusalem Talmud maintains that ninety- 
three instruments must be employed, because the 
number of divine names in the three prophets, 
Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi is ninety-three ; 
R. Hunna declares that this explanation is not 
only absurd, but rests on a false supposition. 
Maimonides, Bartenora and Jom Tob give the 
same explanation in a merely historic form, thus 
showing that they themselves do not consider it 
satisfactory. All instruments are, however, said 
to be of gold or silver. 

The lamb is watered but of a golden bowl in 
order to facilitate its flaying; for the skin is 
thought to become less adhesive by the draught. 
The material of which the bowl is made, is called 
in question by a number of Jewish Doctors, who 
substitute brass instead of gold. But the major- 
ity follows the general maxim that there is no 
poverty in the place of riches. The bowl is de- 
posited, together with the other instruments, on a 
silver table north of the altar. The incipient day- 
light reveals to us in the same place six rows of 
rings, four rings in each row, ingeniously con- 
structed for the fastening of the victim. More to 
the north, are eight low columns, each provided 
with three hooks to hang up the victim while it is 
skinned and disemboweled. Between the columns, 
but still more to the north, there are eight marble 
tables, for the flesh, the fat and the cleaned en- 
5 



66 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

trails. Finally another marble table, near the 
same place, serves for the laying out of the differ- 
ent pieces. According to some authorities, the 
hooks are fastened into cedar beams, laid across 
each pair of columns. The smaller victims are 
hung up on the lower hooks, while the larger 
ones are suspended from the higher. At any rate, 
the Mosaic law, "and he shall kill it on the side 
of the altar, northward before the Lord," is fully 
observed in the arrangements of the various de- 
tails. 

The sacrificing priest, surrounded by his assist- 
ants, fastens the lamb to the second ring on the 
western end. We are told, indeed, that the lamb 
was not bound before being offered. But this 
merely means that its forefeet and its hind legs 
were not bound together. The same authorities 
admit that the lamb was fastened like Isaac was 
bound, when Abraham intended to immolate him. 
Again, they assign as a reason for not binding the 
victim, the fact that the victims of the Gentiles 
were bound forefoot to forefoot and hind leg to 
hind leg, when they were offered to the idols. 
The Jewish victims, on the contrary, have each 
forefoot bound to its corresponding hind leg ; the 
victim's head, fastened in the second ring in the 
marble floor, is turned to the south, its face to the 
west, its tail to the north, its back to the east. 
Instead of seeing in the second ring, the ring 
second in any one row, several authors under- 
stand by it the western-most or first ring of the 
second row. Since the altar is ten cubits high, 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 67 

they say, and the first row of rings only five cu- 
bits north of the altar, the rays of the rising sun 
would not reach the hands of the sacrificing«priest, 
were he to kill the victim at the second ring of 
the first row. 

Meanwhile, the priests destined to cleanse the 
altar of incense and to dress the golden candle- 
stick have not been idle. From Ben Gabar the 
chief door-keeper they obtain the keys of the 
Temple proper, and from the prefect of the 
instruments they receive the golden Cuz 
and Teni ; the former is shaped like a cup, 
the latter presents the appearance of a bas- 
ket. Each with a key on his shoulder and one of 
the two implements in his hand, the two priests 
pass by the northwestern corner of the altar of 
holocausts, and proceed to the steps leading to 
the Temple proper, twenty-two cubits west of 
the altar. The stairway numbers twelve steps, 
each half a cubit high and one cubit wide. The 
third, sixth and ninth steps, however, are three 
cubits in width, and the landing is a flat, four 
cubits wide. Having ascended the steps, the two 
sacred ministers disappear from view through the 
curtained entrance of the Temple-porch. Though 
without doors, the entrance is most imposing. 
Its spacious dimensions, it is forty cubits high 
and twenty cubits wide, are still more enhanced 
by its five oak lintels. The lowest, twenty-two 
cubits long, spans the door posts of the entrance. 
The second, twenty-four cubits in length, is 
placed upon the thin layer of masonry resting 



68 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

immediately on the lowest beam. In a similar 
way, the third beam, twenty-six cubits long, follows 
the second, and the fourth, twenty-eight cubits 
long, rests upon the third ; the fifth, thirty cubits 
in length, overtops all. 

Before we follow the priests into the interior of 
the Temple, we must endeavor to obtain, by the 
light of the dawn, a general view of its external 
outlines. The sacred building proper is T-shaped, 
its main branch lying east and west. The part 
corresponding to the cross-line is, properly speak- 
ing, onlythe porch or the vestibule of the Temple. 
It is one hundred cubits long, but only eleven 
wide, and projects at both ends fifteen cubits 
beyond the main part. These shoulder-like ex- 
tensions may have risen into flanking towers, 
covering the Holy and the Most Holy. At any 
rate, Rabbinic writers call the Temple lion-shaped, 
because its front is wider than its hinder parts. 
They see here an allusion to Jacob's words: 
" Judah is a lion's whelp ; he stooped down, he 
couched as a lion, and as a lioness ; who shall 
rouse him up?" * 

The interior sanctuary is only twenty cubits 
wide. Both its northern and southern walls are 
six cubits thick. Then follow on both sides, north 
and south, three stories of rooms, each story con- 
taining five apartments. The width of the lowest 
room measures six cubits. Next, comes a wall, 
five cubits thick, inclosing the two sets of rooms, 



* Gen. XLIX. 9 



A DAY Itf THE TEMPLE. 69 

and finally, a circuit, three cubits in width, runs 
along both the northern and southern side, being 
again inclosed by an outer wall, five cubits thick. 
The Temple proper is, therefore, both on its north 
and south side inclosed by walls and apartments, 
twenty-five cubits in width ; these two widths of 
twenty-five cubits together with the Temple width 
of twenty cubits, give us the total of seventy 
cubits. 

Next, a word about the length of the Temple 
and its various parts. We have seen that the 
eastern wall of the vestibule is five cubits thick, 
that the vestibule is eleven cubits wide, and that 
the wall of the Temple proper is six cubits thick. 
Then follows the Holy, forty cubits long, with a 
wooden wall, one cubit thick, at its western side. 
West of this is the Holy of Holies, twenty cubits 
long, and inclosed by a six cubit walk Next 
follow three stories of rooms, having three cham- 
bers in the lowest, three in the middle, and two in 
the third story. The width of the lowest apart- 
ments is six cubits, and the thickness of the out- 
side wall is five. The length of the whole Temple 
amounts, therefore, to one hundred cubits. 

The height of the Temple too deserves special 
notice. From what has been said about the stairs 
leading to the entrance of the porch, we see that 
the floor of the building is six cubits higher than 
the surrounding court. Both the Holy and the 
Holy of Holies are forty cubits high ; the rafters 
are one cubit thick; transversely on them rest the 
braces, two cubits thick ; then follows a double 



70 A DAY m THE TEMPLE. 

flooring, the one of wood the other of cement, but 
both one cubit thick. Chambers, forty cubits 
high, overtop both the Holy and the Holy of 
Holies. Rafters, one cubit thick, braces, two 
cubits in thickness, and floorings of wood and 
cement, each one cubit thick, form the ceiling. 
Both the gabled cedar roof and its surrounding 
balustrade, three cubits high, are armed with 
golden spikes, one cubit long, in order to prevent 
the birds from resting on or soiling the sacred 
edifice. The height of the Temple, from the level 
of the court to the top of the spikes on the balus- 
trade, amounts, therefore, to one hundred cubits. 
And now another look at the wings flanking the 
Holy and the Holy of Holies. We perceive, at a 
first glance, that they are considerably lower than 
the main building, which overtowers the Holy 
Places. At the height of about fifty cubits, their 
slanting roof abuts with its higher end on the 
inner wall. Outside windows are, therefore, im- 
possible in both the Holy and the Holy of Holies. 
The two sacred ministers at the entrance of the 
porch, have long ere this drawn the curtain cov- 
ering the huge portal. While one of them opens 
the wicket in the Temple-door, we may be al- 
lowedto look about, and study by the pale morn- 
ing light the various pieces of furniture found in 
the porch. To our right and left are cases holding 
the sacrificial knives. In front of us are two 
tables, one of marble and the other of gold. On 
the former the shewbread is deposited on the 
Sabbath, when it is brought into the Holy, on the 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 71 

latter it is placed on being brought out of the Holy. 
Near by are kept a number of dedicated gifts, 
such as the golden candelabra of the proselyte 
queen of Adiabene, the two golden crowns pre- 
sented by the Maccabees and, above all, a gigan- 
tic vine of pure gold, the symbol of Israel, hung 
over the door leading into the Holy Place. The 
whole vine is made of votive offerings, each clus- 
ter being of a man's height. But the Rabbinic 
writers agree that their Doctors have somewhat 
exaggerated the size of the golden vine, and we 
may safely suppose that what they tell us con- 
cerning the golden chains hanging from the ceiling 
of the porch and serving the priestly candidates 
as ladders for ascending to the second story of the 
porch in order to view the gold crowns which or- 
nament the window openings, is also the offspring 
of the same Rabbinic fancy. 

We must now watch the priest opening the door 
of the Holy Place, if we wish to become acquainted 
with all its particulars. First, he moves aside the 
rich Babylonian curtain presenting the four Tem- 
ple colors, the white of fine linen, blue, scarlet, 
and purple. It hangs in front of the two-leaved 
and gold-plated door. We hardly need to be re- 
minded that the door is twenty cubits high and 
ten cubits wide, dimensions proper to all the 
doors inside the Temple court, the portal of the 
porch alone excepted. A first glance shows us 
also that there are two wickets in the door, one in 
its northern and one in its southern leaf. The 
latter is never opened, because it is supposed to 



72 A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 

represent the gate of which Ezekiel says : "This 
gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, neither 
shall any man enter by it ; for the Lord, the God of 
Israel, hath entered in by it." There is an aper- 
ture above the northern wicket through which one 
of the priests thrusts his arm up to the shoulder, 
in order to reach and remove the bolt locking the 
door on the inside. Then he puts the other key 
into the outer bolt, and removes it also. Both 
priests now enter through the wicket into the 
Holy Place — but no, not yet into the Holy Place. 

What has been told us concerning the thickness 
of the walls, assumes now a practical bearing. 
The gate through which we have entered is, 
indeed, one cubit inside the outer edge of the 
wall ; but there still remains a thickness of five 
cubits to be passed through. Nor is this all. On 
the inner edge of the wall there is another two- 
leaved, gold-plated door, in dimensions equal to 
the outer door. This too is locked, both outside 
and inside. The outer bolt is easily removed; 
the inner occasions more serious difficulties. 
Turning to their right the priests enter a narrow 
passage, constructed in the very wall itself; 
through this they pass along the eastern side, 
northwards, till they reach the chamber at the 
northeastern corner of the Temple wall. The 
apartment is quite dark ; accustomed as the two 
priests are to the place, they turn without further 
delay to the left, where they find a door leading 
through its northern wall into the Holy Place. 

Had they been less acquainted with the inner 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 73 

construction of the Temple-building, they might 
have easily lost their way in the dark passage and 
the darker room. For the doors through which 
they passed were not the only ones in the room. 
Had they gone straight forward, they would have 
found a door leading into the adjoining apartment. 
A turn to the right would have brought them to a 
door leading into the circuit, which we saw flank- 
ing the northern and southern sides of the Tem- 
ple. The latter's peculiar arrangement calls for 
a few words of explanation. Near the entrance 
through which we have come,- there begins a 
gradual ascent, inclined at such an angle, that it 
reaches the height of the second story at the 
northwestern corner of the Temple. Turning 
then to the left, it runs in the form of a level 
passage through the outermost western wall ; then 
it turns again to the left, and passes through the 
southern circuit, again at such an angle that it 
reaches the level of the third story at the south- 
eastern corner of the building. From the apart- 
ment in the third story, at its southeastern corner, 
we may enter the hall over the Holy and the 
Most Holy Places. By a ladder fastened to 
the south side of this hall, one ascends to the roof 
of the building. In the same hall, over the Holy 
of Holies, we notice an aperture of peculiar con- 
struction ; through this a basket or a box, holding 
a workman, is lowered into the Holy of Holies, 
whenever the high priest discovers that any repair 
is needed. The workman is thus prevented from 
" feeding his eyes," on anything holy in the place, 



74 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

excepting the very spot where he is engaged in 
his work. 

Retracing our steps we notice, no doubt, that 
the chambers of the third story are wider than 
those of the second, and those of the second story 
wider than those of the first. The reason of this 
is easily understood. The rafters on which the 
ceilings of the various stories rest, are not inserted 
into the adjoining walls, but the walls themselves 
contract half a cubit with each story, and the raft- 
ers rest on the rectangular projections thus formed. 
While the lowest apartments are six cubits wide, 
those of the second story are seven cubits in 
width, and those of the third, eight. Every cham- 
ber has three doors, two leading to each of the 
adjoining rooms, and one to the room above. 

We may follow the two priests who have, mean- 
while, entered the Holy Place by the door leading 
through the northern wall. Here the sacred 
ministers first go towards the left, and open the 
inner, eastern door. Its two leaves are thrown 
back against the wall. In this way the color of 
the whole interior becomes uniform ; for all the 
walls, except the parts immediately behind the 
door-leaves, are covered with gold. The leaves 
of the outer, eastern door are in the same way 
fastened against the sides of the entrance. Since 
each leaf is five cubits wide, it covers exactly the 
thickness of the wall between the outer and the 
inner door. 

The silence of the night now ceases, and gives 
way to the loud signals of the day. According to 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 75 

Rabbinic traditions, the sound of Ben-Catin's 
machinery for filling the laver was not the only 
sound that reached to Jericho. The groaning 
of the inner Temple gate, the roar of the 
Magrephah, a signal-instrument emitting a com- 
pound of a hundred sounds at once, the voice of 
Gebini the herald, the screaming of the flutes, the 
melody of the Psalm, the trumpet blast, and the 
high priest's solemn voice as he pronounced the 
sacred name of God on the Day of Atonement, 
were one and all heard as far as Jericho. At 
Jericho too was perceived the fragrance of the 
incense ; according to R. Eliezer ben Daglai's 
testimony, its redolence made the goats of Aba 
sneeze even on the mountains of Mikvor. 

Scarcely have the two priests opened the inner 
door of the Temple, when the signal is given to 
open all the gates. Immediately after, the voice 
of Gebini fills the courts and reaches far beyond 
the huge inclosures of the Temple Mount to the 
adjacent parts of the Holy City : " Priests and 
Levites, to your duty ! " 

All within the sacred precincts, down to Abia- 
thar, the most Sadducean minded head priest of 
the course of Abijah, who has till now remained 
in the warm department of the Betfh-Moked, 
begin to stir about. The two hundred and ten 
Levites who have been on duty as watchmen 
during the night, leave their twenty-one stations. 
Five of these are at the five principal gates of the 
outer court, or the Court of Gentiles ; four at the 
four cornersof thesame court, inside the inclosure ; 



76 A DAY /iV THE TEMPLE 

five more stations are at the five most important 
gates of the Court of Israel : at the Beautiful Gate, 
the Nicanor Gate, at Nitzutz, at Abtinas, and near 
Beth-Moked ; four are at the four corners of the 
same court, but outside its wall, in the Court of 
Gentiles ; one is in the treasury, one outside the 
Parbar Gate, and the last near the same place, but 
more remote from the Temple. Thus the words 
of Paralipomenon : * " eastward were six Levites, 
northward four a day, southward four a day, and 
for the storehouse two and two ; for Parbar west- 
ward, four at the cause-way, and two at Parbar," 
are in their way verified, even in the Herodian 
Temple. 

Turning to the east, we see the leaves of the 
Nicanor Gate slowly moving on their hinges. The 
gate is the more remarkable, because it alone is 
made of Corinthian brass, while all the others are 
plated with gold. Two most extraordinary events 
have occasioned this distinction of the Nicanor 
Gate. Nicanor, the Rabbis tell us, had the leaves 
made at Alexandria in Egypt. When he brought 
them to Jerusalem, a mighty storm obliged the 
sailors to throw one of the leaves overboard. 
Nicanor clutched firmly on to the other, and 
declared that he himself would be thrown with it 
into the raging sea. God heard his earnest prayer 
and calmed the storm, so that the second leaf was 
brought safely to Ptolemais. But miracles do not 
usually come singly. When the ship ran into 

* I. 2G, 17. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE, 11 

harbor the first doorleaf, which had been thrown 
into the water, was found adhering to the bottom 
of the vessel. The extremely brilliant color of 
the brass was another motive for not plating the 
Nicanor Gate with gold, though all the other gates 
were subjected to this process. 

Still facing eastward, a number of Levites mov- 
ing towards the Beautiful Gate which leads into the 
Court of Women, attract our attention. Though 
the gate's dimensions do not differ from those of 
all the others, still its leaves are so massive that 
the united strength of at least tv/enty men is 
required to move them on their hinges. As soon 
as the groan of the Beautiful Gate is heard in the 
court, the priests in charge, standing near the table 
of fat, blow three blasts on their silver trumpets, 
summoning the Levites and the " representatives " 
of the people to their respective duties. The three 
blasts are described by the Rabbis as consisting 
of " an alarm in the midst, with a plain note before 
and after." 

In order to follow the coming service with more 
ease, we must keep in mind that, like the priests, 
the Levites had, at the time of king David, been 
divided into twenty-four courses, which were to 
act as priests' assistants, as singers and musicians, 
as gate-keepers and guards, and as officers and 
judges. At that time, the Levites, counted from 
thirty years and upwards, were thirty-eight thou- 
sand in number. 

Twenty-four thousand of these had the charge 
of the Temple under the jurisdiction of the priests. 



78 A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 

They had to look after the sacred vestments and 
vessels, the store houses and their contents, the 
preparation of the shewbread, the meat offerings, 
and the spices, to assist the priests in their work, 
to clean the sanctuary, and to take charge of the 
treasuries. 

Six thousand Levites were officers and judges ; 
in the Temple of Herod, there is, at the period of 
which we speak, no more room for these two em- 
ployments of the Levites. On the one hand, all 
the civil and judicial power left to the Jews is now 
in the hands of the Sanhedrin ; on the other, the 
number of Levites has been considerably dimin- 
ished, during the time of the Babylonian captivity. 
While no less than four thousand two hundred 
and eighty-nine priests returned from Babylon 
with Zerubbabel and Joshua, only seventy-four 
priests' assistants came back, together with one 
hundred and twenty-eight singers, and a hundred 
and thirty-nine door-keepers. When Ezra returned 
he managed to bring with him thirty^eight more 
Levites; but even these were persuaded only 
after serious expostulation. The subordinate 
place assigned to the Levites, seems to have been 
the reason for their disinclination to return. 

The Levitic ranks were, however, considerably 
strengthened by those children of Levi who had 
never left their native country. For since the 
Levites were more scattered over the whole land 
than the priests, few of them had been carried off 
into the Babylonian captivity. Hence the fact 
that in the catalogue of Levites, in the second 



A DAY IX TEE TEMPLE. 79 

Book of Ezra,* we find a few more families than 
we meet with in the catalogue of those who 
returned with Zerubbabel f is not so surprising as 
some have thought it. In another catalogue found 
in the same Book of Ezra,J seventeen families 
are given as belonging to the Levites. At any 
rate, Josephus § testifies that each of the twenty- 
four courses of priests had in his time a corre- 
sponding course of Levites. 

Still, it is certain beyond all reasonable doubt 
that the real descendants of Levi could not fully 
supply the deficiency in the Levitical ranks caused 
by the Babylonian captivity. In David's time 
there had been four thousand singers and four 
thousand door-keepers, besides the above men- 
tioned six thousand judges and twenty- four 
thousand assistants. Not even the two hundred 
and twenty Nethinim or "given ones," could 
fully repair the lacking number. Strangers and 
captives as these latter were, they must have held 
a position analogous to that of the Gibeonites. 
According to the Rabbinic law the Nethinim are 
free indeed from taxation and military service, like 
the priests and Levites, but they are classed 
below a bastard, though above a proselyte; inter- 
marrying with Israelites is forbidden them, and 
membership of the congregation they cannot 
claim. 



* XII. 8. 

t Ezra II. 40 ff.-, Neh. VII. 43 f. 

X II. x. 10-14. 

§ Antiq. VII. xiv. 7. 



80 A DAY IN" THE TEMPLE. 

In addition to this, there is an analogous divis- 
ion of the people themselves into twenty-four 
courses of service, each of which has to take its 
turn in coming before the Lord every day for a 
whole week, while the daily sacrifice is being 
offered, by way of representing the body of the 
people. The division actually engaged in the 
performance or this duty, is known by the name 
Ma amad or " station." But the entire lay-station 
does not necessarily go to Jerusalem, when its 
turn comes. The persons belonging to it, may 
meet together in the synagogues of the towns in 
or near which they reside, and there engage in the 
reading of the Scripture and prayer. A deputa- 
tion suffices to represent them. And it is above 
all, this deputation which " stands by," while the 
sacrifice is offering ; hence its members are named 
stationary men, and are bound to be in the Tem- 
ple during the morning offering. 

But to return to the sacrificing priest. So soon 
as the groaning of the eastern gate is heard in the 
court, the priest standing behind the sacrificial 
lamb, draws forward its windpipe and gullet, and 
quickly thrusts upward the knife, while his com- 
panion catches the flowing blood in a golden 
bowl. This is precisely the most important part 
of the sacrifice. If the lamb is killed by a lay- 
man, or with an ordinary knife, the sacrifice is still 
valid. But if the blood is caught in any but a 
consecrated vessel, or sprinkled' by any one not a 
priest, or not Levitically clean, the sacrifice itself 
becomes invalid. 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 81 

In order to sprinkle the blood according to the 
prescribed ritual, the priest holding the bowl pro- 
ceeds first to the northeast corner of the altar, 
and then to its southwest corner, sprinkling both 
in such a way as to cover its two sides, or as it is 
described, in the form of the Greek letter Gamma. 
No blood touches the part above the red line 
which runs all around the middle of the altar. 
Above the line must be sprinkled the blood of 
sacrifices intended to be eaten ; below it that of 
sacrifices wholly consumed by the fire. After 
going around the altar, the priest pours the rest of 
the blood at the base of its eastern extremity, on 
the south side. For there are, at this corner, two 
orifices ; one on the southern, and one on the 
western side. The remnant of the blood which 
has been sprinkled in Holy Places is poured out on 
the western side ; what remains of that sprinkled 
at the altar of holocausts itself, is poured out at 
the southern side. The blood is drained into 
chambers below and into a canal, which can be 
flushed at will, and is thus carried down into the 
Kedron and the royal gardens. 

Meanwhile, the two sacred ministers whom we 
left in the Holy Place have not been. idle. After 
opening the Temple gate,they turn towards the west, 
and have before them a hall, twenty cubits wide, 
forty cubits high and forty cubits long. The only 
light in the place comes from the few lamps burn- 
ing on a huge candlestick at its south side, i. e. y to 
the left of the advancing priests. Besides its gilded 
walls, only four objects within the Holy Place in- 



82 A DAT m THE TEMPLE, 

vite our attention. To our right, near the northern 
wall, we perceive a curiously wrought table ; in 
front of us, near the western wall, another table 
of similar workmanship, but serving an entirely- 
different purpose, may be seen ; behind this table, 
on the very wall itself, a precious curtain, twenty 
cubits in length and ten in width, covers the 
entrance to another apartment ; and in the fourth 
place, there is the candlestick to our left by the 
light of whose lamps we shall examine these four 
objects in a cursory way. 

The shape and form of the table at our right 
immediately brings to our mind a description of 
the table of the shewbread, given in the Book of 
Exodus.* Two cubits in length, a cubit in breadth, 
and a cubit and a half in height, it has "a golden 
crown to the border thereof round about." Like 
all the sacred furniture, it is placed lengthways in 
the Temple ; the Ark of the Covenant alone, so 
long as it was in the possession of Israel, stood 
broadways. The table used in the first Temple 
was carried off to Babylon with the rest of the 
Temple furniture. The table of the second Tem- 
ple too was taken away by Antiochus Epiphanes 
about 170 B. C, f and another was supplied by 
Judas Maccabseus. J According to Josephus, § 
Ptolemy Philadelphus presented a fourth and most 
magnificent table. But its description does not 



* XXV. 23-30. 
f 1 Mace. I. 22. 
X 1 Mace. IV. 49. 
§ Antiq. XII. ii. 8, 9. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 83 

agree with the representation of the table of shew- 
bread found on the arch of Titus. Since the latter 
is supposed to represent that carried away by the 
Romans on their taking Jerusalem, we infer that 
the table before us is identical with the one 
furnished by the Maccabees. It is made of pure 
gold ; its feet are turned out and represent those 
of animals, and its legs are about their middle 
connected by a golden plate, surrounded by a 
golden crown, similar to that encircling the top. 
Its dishes and spoons, covers and bowls, tubes 
and loaves, we leave for a future examination. 
Turning to the left, our attention is first attracted 
by the precious veil on the western wall. We 
have not been deceived in our surmise that it cov- 
ers the entrance into another apartment. A mo- 
ment's reflection suffices to identify the hidden 
room. From what the sacred writing tells us, it 
cannot be any other than the Holy of Holies. We 
even know that the wall is made of wood, and is 
one cubit in thickness. According to the Rabbis, 
the high priest, who alone is permitted to enter 
the Most Holy, goes in by the southern edge of 
the veil, then walks across the width of the en- 
trance, a space of ten cubits, and enters the Most 
Holy Place by the northern edge of the second 
veil, suspended on the other side of the wall. No 
light reveals the dimensions of that sacred place ; 
Holy Scripture says that it is a square of twenty 
cubits, and forty cubits high. Not even the large 
stone, three digits high, in the place where for- 
merly the ark and the mercy-seat stood, can be 



84 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

discerned in the darkness. When the high priest, 
on the Day of Atonement, enters the place, he 
follows special directions in order to find the 
exact location of the stone. 

Since the veil is not yet "rent in twain from 
the top to the bottom," we must be satisfied with 
a closer examination of the objects on our 
side of it. Close to the veil stands a table, one 
cubit long and broad, and two cubits high. Like 
the altar of burnt-offerings, it has four horns at the 
four corners, which are of one piece with the rest 
of the table. Around its top runs a border or 
wreath reminding us of the balustrades around 
the eastern house-tops. From what we know of 
the Temple service, this must be the altar of in- 
cense, called also the golden altar, to distinguish 
it from the brazen altar, or the altar of burnt-offer- 
ings. Ezekiel calls it the altar of wood, and it is 
further described as the table that is before the 
Lord. In the tabernacle the altar of incense was 
made of acacia wood, overlaid with pure gold. 
The altar in Solomon's Temple was similar to the 
former in construction, but was made of cedar 
wood, covered with plates of gold. Antiochus 
Epiphanes removed this altar from the second 
Temple, but Judas Maccabaeus restored it, together 
with the other sacred furniture.* Though on the 
arch of Titus no altar of incense appears, we 
know for certain that it existed in the Herodian 
Temple, and was richly overlaid with gold. The 



* 1 Mace. I. 21; IV. 49. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 85 

fact that sweet incense is burnt upon it twice a 
day, and that the blood of atonement is sprinkled 
on it, gives it a special importance. No altar is 
mentioned as existing in the heavenly Jerusalem.* 

Simultaneously with the slaying of the lamb, 
the priest destined to clean the altar of incense, 
takes with his hands the burnt coals and ashes 
from its " top " or " roof," a special contrivance 
for burning the incense. Whatever cannot be 
removed with the hand, is swept away with a 
brush especially adapted to that purpose. So 
soon as both coals and ashes are deposited in the 
" Teni," the priest places it on the floor of the 
Holy Place, and withdraws from the sanctuary. 

Meanwhile, the second priest who entered the 
Holy with us, has gone to the southern side of the 
sanctuary, and we see him now busy near the 
candlestick. The latter is placed southeast of the 
altar of incense, in a position symmetrical to that 
of the table of shewbread on the northeast side. 
Whether the candlestick be of beaten work or 
moulded, we cannot now determine. Josephus 
tells us that from its golden base, two cubits in 
height, a main shaft or reed springs and spreads 
into as many branches as there are planets, includ- 
ing the sun. Near its foot is a golden almond- 
shaped dish ; a little higher up is a golden knop, 
and above it a flower, also of gold. Then there 
are two branches, one on each side, bowed, and 
reaching as high as the main shaft. Three golden 



* Is. VI. 6; Apoc. VIII. 3-4. 



86 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

cups are placed on each of them, in scollop-shell 
fashion. Above these is again a golden knop, a 
golden flower, and the socket. On the main shaft, 
above the two branches just described, is a golden 
boss, and over it two more branches extend, one 
on either side. Above these two is another golden 
boss, and two more branches, similar to the 
former. Higher up, on the main shaft, are three 
golden scollop-cups, a knop and a flower : all 
is so arranged that the heads of the various 
branches are all on the same level. The weight 
of the whole is one hundred and twenty-five 
pounds, and its value exclusive of the workman- 
ship, amounts to about $25,380. The work is 
eighteen palms high. 

The branches are not grouped around the main 
shaft, but placed parallel to one another in a 
single row. In the desert, when the candlestick 
had to be carried about, it was covered with a 
cloth of blue, and put with its appendages into 
badger-skin bags, which were supported on a bar. 
In Solomon's Temple there were ten candlesticks 
of this description, five on the right and five on 
the left of the altar of incense. In fact, they 
formed a sort of railing before the veil, and were , 
connected by golden chains, under which on the 
Day of Atonement the high priest crept. They 
were taken to Babylon with the rest of the sacred 
furniture. The second Temple, like the Taber- 
nacle, had only one candlestick, the one we see 
before us. For, at our period, Titus has not yet 
carried the spoils of the desecrated Temple to 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 87 

Rome, nor has Genseric taken the Jewish curiosi- 
ties from Rome to Carthage, and much less has 
the victorious Belisarius as yet regained the golden 
candlestick and brought it back to Constantinople 
in order to deposit it in the Christian church at 
Jerusalem. 

While we have examined the candlestick, the 
ministering priest has ascended its three stone 
steps. Since it is placed obliquely, so that its lamps 
look east and south, the large middle lamp is called 
the "western lamp." This name is well deserved, 
because the lamp in question is inclined west- 
wards, to the Most Holy Place, while all the 
others are inclined towards the centre. The fact 
that not all the lamps are lit now, does not prove 
that they have not been burning during the night. 
In point of fact, all the seven lamps are lit in the 
evening to burn throughout the night, and only 
two are kept burning through the day. Rabbinic 
Doctors tell us that all the other lamps often go 
out during the night ; but the western or central 
lamp is always found burning in the morning. 

When the blood of the lamb is being sprinkled 
on the altar .of burnt-offering the priest, with gold- 
en snuffers, trims the lamps that are still burning 
and pours in a new supply of oil. Then he re- 
moves the wicks and the old oil of the lamps which 
have been extinguished, supplies fresh wicks, 
pours in half a log of the purest olive oil, and 
relights them from one of the other lamps. The 
central lamp must, however, be relit from the fire 
on the altar of burnt-offering. Only five of the 



88 A DAY /AT THE TEMPLE. 

lamps are trimmed at this point of time ; the other 
two are reserved for a later part of the service. 
The old oil and the remnants of the wicks are de- 
posited in different compartments in the cup- 
shaped Cuz. It is from soiled priestly tunics, unfit 
for Temple wear as soon as soiled, that the wicks 
are usually made. The lamps trimmed, the priest 
leaves his Cuz on the second step of the ascent 
to the candlestick, and withdraws from the 
sanctuary for the present. 

While these two ministers perform their service 
in the Holy Place and the sacrificing priests are 
busy in the court, the other ministers on duty are 
gathered in the Hall of Polished Stones and wait 
for the next casting of the lot. Though Obed has 
been destined to carry the victim's two sides to 
the altar, he utilizes the few moments he has to 
spare before his services will be needed. The 
younger members of the priesthood stand about 
in groups, discussing the number of sacrifices to 
be offered to-day, the prospects of the approach- 
ing Feast of Tabernacles, or the probable results 
of the next lot. Several of the older men stand 
alone, apparently absorbed in earnest prayer or 
devout meditation. Notwithstanding Zachary's 
air of devotion, Obed approaches and compliments 
him on the restoration of his house and family to 
wealth and rank. For a moment, the venerable 
old priest finds no answer. For many years past 
he has not received such expressions of sympathy 
from any one, much less from Abiathar's friends. 

" Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel," he 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 89 

answers at length, " for he hath visited and wrought 
redemption for my house." 

" The Lord killeth and maketh alive," Obed 
replies, in the most devout tone of voice his long- 
practised hypocrisy can command ; " the Lord 
maketh poor and maketh rich ; he bringeth low, 
he also lifteth up. His ways are truly wonderful 
above our comprehension. Who could have ex- 
pected that the glory of thy family should be 
exalted by the man who, a few years ago, blotted 
out its very name from the records of our na- 
tion ? " 

"Thy speech is a riddle to me, Obed," says 
Zachary, who has now directed his whole atten- 
tion to his interlocutor. " Thou must know that 
Samuel's leave of return is not due to any change 
in Herod's disposition towards my family ; Mat- 
thian has exerted all the weight of his authority 
with the Herodians to obtain the desired permis- 
sion." 

'- Herod's favors are not niggardly," Obed ex- 
plains; " he isas generous in friendship as he is cruel 
in enmity. Salome has told me that her royal 
brother is about to marry one of his nieces to 
Samuel. Thus thy house shall be allied to the 
king's in kinship as well as in loyalty." 

" I hate the congregation of evil-doers, and will 
not sit with the wicked," exclaims Zachary ; " I 
will wash my hands in innocency ; so will I com- 
pass thine altar, O Lord!" 

" All honor to thy fidelity and uprightness," 
continues Obed ; " but what evil can there be in 



90 A DAY m THE TEMPLE. 

Samuel's union with a princess of the Herodian 
family? " 

" Art thou a stranger in Israel, Obed ? " gasps 
Zachary. " Knowest thou not that by such a 
marriage Samuel and his offspring would be forever 
excluded from the altar? The past misfortunes of 
my family are as nothing, when compared with 
this reputed exaltation." 

" Zachary," says Obed, " the time has passed 
when the priestly office was the most desirable 
boon in our nation. Educated in Babylon, as he 
is, Samuel may wisely prefer a position at court, 
or in the army, to our despised Temple service." 

" Samuel, O Lord, loves the habitation of thy 
house, and the place where thy glory dwelleth. 
Gather not his soul with sinners, nor his life with 
men of blood. Remember, O Lord, that he has 
left untold riches and innumerable friends in 
Babyion, to stand in thy Holy Place and minister 
in the congregation of thy faithful! " 

"Art thou a stranger in Israel?" retaliates 
Obed ; " knowest thou not that Samuel's family 
registers have been destroyed ? For this very 
reason does Herod wish to unite him to the royal 
house, seeing that his restoration to any priestly 
office is beyond his power." 

" The deceit of the wicked has failed," calmly 
replies Zachary ; " Samuel's genealogical record, 
sufficient to secure him a place at the altar of the 
Lord, is safe in my keeping." 

Obed can hardly conceal the smile of satisfac- 
tion which for the moment lights up his counte- 



A DAT IN TEE TEMPLE. 91 

nance ; two of the priests who are standing in the 
door-way of Gazith give a sign to Obed that his 
services are needed in the court, and Zachary is 
overjoyed to be relieved from the importunity of 
his tempter. 

Outside, the slain victim is meanwhile hung 
by its left hind leg on one of the hooks, is flayed 
and divided up according to the Jewish ritual. 
The flaying extends first down to the breast ; then 
the head is cut off and handed to the priest 
destined to carry it to the altar. Next, the flaying 
is completed, the heart is split so as to let out all 
the blood, and the forelegs are cut off and handed 
to the attendant priest. After this, the right hind 
leg is separated and given to the priest who holds 
the head. In the next place, the belly of the 
lamb is laid open,^ the fat removed and placed 
on the head, or rather on that place of the 
neck where the deadly knife has pierced. For 
the head must be held in such a way that the part 
referred to is uppermost. After this, the intestines 
are handed to the priest destined to carry them to 
the altar; the latter proceeds to the building near 
by, where he washes his part of the victim at 
least twice. A third ablution is performed 
on one of the marble tables which stand be- 
tween the columns. Then the lungs are separ- 
ated from the liver, and the liver from the reticule. 
The breast is cut off and given to a priest. 
Next, the priest goes to the right side of the 
victim and cuts off the part between the second 
front and the second hind rib without touching, 



92 A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 

however, the spinal column. The side, together 
with the liver, is handed to the attending priest. 
Then the neck including the two front ribs is cut 
off and, together with the wind-pipe, the heart and 
the lungs, is handed to the priest who holds the 
breast. Again the priest approaches the victim, 
and its left side including the second hind rib 
and the corresponding portion of the spinal 
column is cut off, and with the spleen adhering to 
it, handed to him who holds the right side. Then 
the hind part of the lamb is separated from its left 
hind leg, having the tail, the kidneys and the reti- 
cule adhering to it, and the whole is given to that 
attendant priest who has till now received nothing 
to carry. Finally, the remaining hind leg is 
removed from the hook and handed to the same 
sacred minister. 

The six priests who hold the various parts 
walk in procession towards the altar. The first 
carries the head in his right hand, holding it by 
the horns, the nostrils turned towards his arm and 
the fat resting on top ; in his left hand he carries 
the right hind leg, turning its thin end outward. 
The second carries the right forefoot in his right 
hand, and the left forefoot in his left. The lower 
ends are again turned outward. The third in line 
carries in his right hand the hinder part of the 
lamb with the adhering portions, holding the tail 
between his fingers ; in his left he holds the left 
hind leg, the lower end turned outward. The 
fourth priest holds in his right hand the victim's 
breast, in his left he carries the neck and its 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 93 

adhering parts, holding the whole by the two front 
ribs. The fifth in line carries the two sides, the 
right in his right, the left in his left, the flayed side 
being turned uppermost. The sixth holds a flat 
dish in his hands with the entrails of the victim 
upon it, its trotters resting on the entrails. After 
these six follow three more priests : the first carries 
the offering of fine flour, the second the baked 
meat offering of the high priest, the third the wine 
for the drink-offering. 

The procession of the nine priests winds its way 
slowly and solemnly past the altar of burnt-offer- 
ing, to the western corner of its ascent, and nearly 
halfway up the altar. Here the parts of the victim 
are deposited to be salted. For every sacrifice 
must be salted with salt, except the blood of the 
sprinkling, the wood for the fire, and the drink- 
offering. Indeed, the whole slope of the altar's 
ascent is covered with salt; this precaution is 
considered necessary to prevent the barefooted 
priests from slipping when going up the incline. 
Since there is a huge heap of salt kept in the 
building at the northeastern corner of the court, 
not far from the place of salting, the latter per- 
formance is soon finished. All the ministers then 
proceed to the Hall of Polished Stones, in the 
southeastern corner of the court, and there join 
their companions who till now have not been 
favored with any special sacrificial duty. 

Before we follow them, we may be permitted to 
cast a glance at the sacrificing priest who carries 
away the skin of the victim to the building in the 



94 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

centre of the northern wall of the court. There it 
is salted and, together with the skins of the other 
victims, kept till the eve of the Sabbath, when all 
the sacrificial skins of the week's burnt, sin, and 
trespass-offerings are distributed amongthe course 
of priests that has been on duty during the week. 



CHAPTER IV. 



ABOUT THE THIRD HOUR. 



It is not in the Temple only that the new day 
has produced fresh signs of life. Morning is 
always most interesting in Palestine, and above all 
in its capital, Jerusalem. In the narrow lanes 
among the houses, people are driving their 
camels, sheep and goats afield. Here and there 
a man is on the way to his daily work, with his 
plough on his shoulder. 

At the sides of the broader streets, the sellers 
of sweetmeats and fruits preside over their boxes 
and baskets, sitting cross-legged on the projecting 
front ledges of the house arches in all the glory 
of turban, flowing robes and bare legs. Milk, 
bread and vegetables have their own purveyors, 
turbaned figures of imposing dignity, who seem 
to think their dens the most important spot in the 
Holy City, as the Holy City is the most important 
spot on the face of the earth. Garlic, leeks, 
carrots, radishes like Bologna sausages in length 
and thickness, find numerous buyers. Fishshops 
are frequent, and cobblers drive a brisk trade in 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 95 

the open air, mending sandals and slippers that 
would be thrown into the dust-bin in any other 
part of the civilized world. 

Veiled women too pass along frequently, ordi- 
narily dressed in a long sack of blue cloth, without 
any folds, but reaching from the head to the bare 
feet. In parts, the streets are even crowded with 
strange Oriental figures, which from time to time 
must press closely together to let a drove of 
mules or asses pass, laden with mysterious cases, 
ready for export, or with huge rough stones or 
boxes of oranges. Servants too with weights that 
seem overwhelming trot along through a way 
readily opened for them through selfish motives. 
Then there are strings of silent, splay-footed 
camels, freighted with portmanteaus, boxes, bar- 
rels, or loads of wheat and furniture. One is 
more than once reminded of the burdens heavy 
and grievous to be borne, to which Jesus com- 
pares the legal exactions of the scribes and the 
Pharisees. 

But the attention of the inhabitants of the Holy 
City is not wholly absorbed in earthly pursuits. 
A look at the four western entrances of the ex- 
terior Temple court reveals to us such a crowd of 
devout and -eager worshippers that we are tempted 
to regard this day either as a special feast or, at 
least, as an exceptional day of national devotion. 
The crowds from the Lower City ascend by flights 
of steps to the most northerly of the western gates, 
close by the casjje of Antonia. The inhabitants 
of the suburbs, or Parbar, enter by the two gates 



96 A DAY Iff THE TEMPLE. 

that occupy the central portion of the western 
inclosure. 

But by far the greatest number approaches from 
the Hill of Zion, the city of David, by a most 
magnificent avenue leading to the southwestern 
angle of the Temple. The colossal bridge on 
which they come, connects the royal palace on 
Zion with the Royal Porch of the Temple, span- 
ning the whole intervening valley of the Tyropoeon. 
Each arch of the bridge springs forward about 
fifty-six cubits, and its key-stones are sixteen 
cubits in length by four cubits in thickness. The 
bridge's roadway across the cleft between the two 
mountains, is two hundred and thirty-six cubits 
long and thirty-three or thirty-four cubits wide. 
On looking over its parapet, one .sees into the 
depth of the Tyropoeon valley, not less than one 
hundred and fifty cubits below. The city too is 
spread out before us like a map, with its straggling 
suburbs, its rich orchards, its fair gardens, and 
most remarkable of all, the " garden of roses " or 
the royal garden, south of the Holy City, in the 
valley between the Mount of Offence and the 
Hill of Evil Council. 

Attractive as the view is, it does not delay any 
of the many passengers from Mount Zion. Not 
as if the place itself did not admiit of any disorderly 
crowd of men ; before many years will have passed, 
the most riotous mob that ever trod the streets of 
the City of David, will pass that bridge, counting 
Roman soldiers, elderly Pharisees, learned scribes, 
grave looking priests and misled patriots among 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 97 

its number, with " the Lamb of God, who taketh 
away the sins of the world " in its midst, jeering, 
blaspheming, reviling, as only natives of the East 
know how to do. But there is no indication of 
such disorder to-day. Long-robed scribes, gray- 
bearded Pharisees with their Phylacteries con- 
spicuous on their foreheads, and deeply veiled 
women walk in one long and eager procession 
towards the high portals of the Temple Mount. 
The men often greet each other with the profound 
oriental salam, but no such sign of recognition or 
friendship is extended to the women. Within a 
few years from now R. Akiba will give his famous 
decision against him who has saluted a woman in 
the street, fining him four hundred sus. 

Entering with the devout multitude, we find 
ourselves in the Royal Porch, which consists of 
four rows of columns, forty pillars in each row, 
arranged in such a way that the fourth row is 
inserted into the southern wall of the Court of 
Gentiles. Two more pillars serve as a kind of a 
screen where the porch opens upon the bridge. 
By this arrangement is obtained a central nave, 
thirty cubits in width, and two side aisles, each 
twenty cubits wide. The pillars which form the 
nave are over sixty-six cubits high, while the two 
outer rows are only a little more than thirty-three 
cubits in height. All pillars have Corinthian 
capitals, and a double spiral runs around their 
base. Each pillar's thickness is such that three 
men, with their arms extended, " fathom it round 
and join their hands again." The roofs are adorned 
7 



98 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

with a profusion of sculptures in wood, representing 
many sorts of figures. The middle part is twice 
as high as the two side roofs. The inner front of 
the wall is adorned with beams, resting upon 
pillars, which are built into the solid masonry. 
According to Josephus, the front itself is of pol- 
ished stone, whose beauty surpasses the belief of 
such as have not seen it, and greatly amazes all 
who see it. 

From the top of this colonnade one has a view 
into the Kedron valley close by, to the stupen- 
dous depth of three hundred cubits. Josephus tells 
us that if any one looks from the top of the bat- 
tlement down into the valley below, he becomes 
giddy, and his sight cannot reach to such an 
immense depth. No wonder then that Satan will 
choose this precise point for tempting Jesus with 
the words : " If thou art the son of God, cast thy- 
self down : for it is written, he shall give his angels 
charge concerning thee : and on their hands they 
shall bear thee up, lest haply thou dash thy foot 
against a stone." 

A number of worshippers begin to occupy seats 
on the bench which runs all along the back wall 
of the Royal Porch. The reason is easily learned 
from one of the bystanders; they are proselytes, 
and therefore forbidden to enter the Court of 
Women or that of the Israelites. 

The Royal Porch has a real claim to the name 
" Solomon's Porch," though it has never been 
known by that title. Its foundations, indeed, do 
not date from the time of that great king, but it 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 99 

stands on the ground formerly occupied by the 
king's stables and the palace to which he brought 
the daughter of Pharaoh. King Herod has 
extended the platform of the Temple so as to 
include these localities. " It is impossible to re- 
alize the effect produced by a building longer and 
higher than, most Christian Cathedrals, standing 
on a solid mass of masonry almost equal in height 
to the tallest of our church spires. And this is 
only one of the porches which forms the southern 
enclosure of the first, or outermost court of the 
Temple called the Court of Gentiles, though 
Rabbinic writers commonly name it ' the mount- 
ain of the house. ' " 

Following the main stream of new arrivals, we 
pass obliquely through the western end of the 
Royal Porch and then turn to our left, where we 
enter a marble-paved, unroofed, rectangular space. 
The Rabbis tell us that it forms a square of five 
hundred cubits. Walls surround the whole place, 
but a single glance shows us that their height is not 
the same on the four sides. The eastern wall, 
right in front of us, is considerably lower than any 
of the other three. Nor are the Doctors at a loss 
to account for this fact. When the priest slays 
the red heifer on the Mount of Olives, he must 
sprinkle its blood seven times towards the Most 
Holy Place. Were the eastern wall so high as 
are the walls on the south, north or west, the sac- 
rificing priest could not see the Most Holy over 
Solomon's Porch, which is built against that wall. 

Solomon's Porch is, on the whole, constructed 



100 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

like the Royal Porch by which we have entered. 
It contains, however, only a double colonnade, 
instead of the triple one we have observed in the 
Royal Porch. Its pillars are all monoliths, wholly 
cut out of one block of marble, each pillar being 
twenty-five cubits high. Double rows of these 
pillars run, in fact, all round the three sides of 
the court not occupied by the Royal Porch, A 
flat cedar roof, richly ornamented, rests on the 
Corinthian pillars and abuts on the wall, in which 
the outer row of pillars is inserted. Benches and 
seats, placed at random throughout the various 
parts of the porches, invite the worshippers to 
friendly religious intercourse, to discuss matters 
relating to the Temple or the national hope of 
Israel. 

We have already seen that Solomon's Porch 
runs along the eastern wall, thus joining the Royal 
Porch in the southeastern corner of the court. 
The porch bears Solomon's name, not because he 
constructed it, but because it rests on foundations 
remaining from the first Temple. This porch 
owes its importance mainly to the fact that, being 
situated east of the court, it faces the principal 
entrance to the Court of Women, and to that of 
Israel. Here will Jesus walk on that memorable 
day when he will declare plainly .• " I and my 
Father are one." Here too will S. Peter speak to 
the assembled multitudes, running together after 
the remarkable miracle at the Beautiful Gate. 

Allowing ourselves to be carried along still 
further by the stream of worshippers, we pass 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 101 

through a marble screen, three cubits high, having 
so far as we can learn from the Rabbinic Doctors, 
thirteen different entrances. Any one willing to 
take the trouble, will see that it surrounds the 
whole inner Temple building. The latter is situ- 
ated in the Court of Gentiles in such a way that 
the free space left on its south side is broader than 
that at its north side, and the latter is broader 
than the space at the west side, though narrower 
than that on the east side. The Temple proper 
is, therefore, located in the northwest corner of 
the Court of Gentiles, and the free space around 
it becomes narrower as one passes from the south 
to the east, from the east to the north, and from 
the north to the west. 

But what is the meaning of yonder stragglers 
receding from the crowd of worshippers, and 
approaching the Temple from its left side, instead 
of entering by the common access at its right? 
The guard at the northwestern corner of the 
marble screen is about to obtain the desired 
information. 

" Why dost thou approach by the left ? " he 
asks in an imperative tone. 

" I am in sorrow," the lonely worshipper re- 
plies. 

" He who dwelleth in this house grant thee 
comfort," the guard answers. 

" I am separated from Israel, because I am un- 
clean," the man continues in explanation of his 
former statement. 

" He who dwelleth in this house put it into 



102 A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 

thy mind to heed those who would restore thee 
again! " the guard answers. 

And those tablets with inscriptions posted up 
on the pillars that rise at regular intervals above 
the marble screen ? Being written in Latin and 
Greek, they may be deciphered without the assist- 
ance of an interpreter. " No stranger," they read, 
" may enter within this balustrade. Whoever 
offends, is responsible to himself for his death 
which will ensue." Even S. Paul will experience 
that this threat is not meaningless. On the mere 
suspicion that he has taken Trophimus the Ephe- 
sian proselyte into the prohibited inclosure, the 
Jews will rise up against him in wild excitement, 
and they would tear him to pieces, did not the 
commandant of the fortress Antonia, on the north- 
west corner of the Court of Gentiles, hurry to his 
aid with a band of Roman soldiers.* 

At the risk of our lives we follow the crowd of 
devout worshippers, behaving, so far as possible, 
like the rest of the bystanders. Passing through 
the marble inclosure, we meet a flight of fourteen 
steps, each half a cubit high, leading up to a ter- 
race ten cubits wide, and surrounding the whole 
inner wall of the Temple. The terrace is called 
Chel, and is, according to some authors, not sub- 
ject to the same laws of purity as the inner Tem- 
ple courts. At least, it is certain that several 
regulations pertaining to the Court of Priests, do 
not regard the Chel. Thus, in the former, no one 



* Act. XXI. 26. 



A DAT m THE TEMPLE. 103 

but a prince of David's royal blood is allowed to be 
seated. It is for this reason that the Beth-Moked, 
the Gazith and the two other buildings, occupy- 
ing the corners of the Court of Priests, extend 
beyond the limit of the court, properly so called, 
into the Chel. This provision is rendered abso- 
lutely necessary by the said regulation; without 
it the meeting of the Sanhedrin in Gazith and the 
sleeping of the priests in the House of Stoves would 
be impossible. 

A solid wall, forty cubits high, rises on the inner 
limits of the Chel, having four gates on both its 
north and south side, but only one on the east. 
With six of these gates, three on the north and 
three on the south side, we are already acquainted. 
They are the Water-Gate, the Gate of Firstlings 
and the Wood-Gate on the south; the Gate 
Nitzutz, the Gate of Sacrifices and the Gate of 
Beth-Moked on the north. The fourth northern 
and southern gates both open at the eastern 
extremity of the inclosing wall into the Court of 
Women. But they are hardly used on ordinary 
occasions like to-day. The whole stream of 
worshippers is easily swallowed up by the eastern 
or the Beautiful Gate. 

Like the eight side-entrances, the Beautiful 
Gate is two-leaved, twenty cubits high and ten 
cubits wide ; it too has superstructures and cham- 
bers, supported by two pillars, and is covered with 
gold and silver-plating. But the excellence of its 
workmanship, and the magnificence of its whole 
appearance betray at once that it is the principal 



104 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

entrance to the Temple of the Lord. Twelve easy 
steps, each half a cubit high and half a cubit wide, 
lead up through the wall, and only privileged beg- 
gars are allowed to take here their daily position, 
in order to profit by the charity of the devout 
Israelites. Similar sights are presented at the 
doors of the European Cathedrals at the present 
day. It is here that Sts. Peter and John will meet 
the man, lame for many years, and restore him 
by the power of Jesus' name. From this place 
the beggar will follow them into the Court of 
Women " walking and leaping and praising God." 
Near by, in fact just opposite, is Solomon's Porch, 
whither all the people will crowd after the service 
in order to behold the miracle — for all Jerusalem 
knows the lame beggar at the Beautiful Gate — 
and to hear Peter's famous sermon announcing the 
Messiahship of Jesus the Crucified. 

But all these associations are not yet connected 
with the gate and the court. The place in itself 
offers sufficient interest to keep our attention far 
longer than we can afford to bestow upon it, the 
time of the morning sacrifice being now at hand. 
Any one of the worshippers willingly explains to 
us the principal features of the court. It is a 
square of one hundred and thirty-five cubits ; its 
pavement presents the same fine tesselated marble 
which we noticed in the Court of Gentiles. Its 
north, east and south sides are surrounded by 
single porches built in the same style as those in 
the outer court, only their height and breadth are 
not so pretentious. The porches are provided with 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 105 

seats constructed and arranged as those of the 
outer court. For the apartments contrived in the 
four corners of the court we have, at present, only 
a passing glance, reserving a more accurate 
examination of the same for a later period. 

Though we have constantly spoken of the Court 
of Women, we have already intimated that men 
are not excluded from it. Its name, therefore, 
indicates rather that women are allowed to worship 
in it, than* that it is reserved for them exclusively. 
A number of Rabbinic Doctors assure us that 
they are allowed only on the raised galleries, 
constructed along three sides of the court. 
According to the same testimony, it is only for 
sacrificial purposes that any woman may dare to 
enter the lower part of the court. The gallery is 
accessible by a stairway, leading up to it through 
the wall at the Beautiful Gate. The women now 
present on the floor of the court, are to appear at 
the Gate of Nicanor towards the close of the 
morning sacrifice, when the first-born are redeemed 
and the mothers after child-birth are purified. 

Continuing our way onward with the seemingly 
more devout Pharisees, who are not content with 
assisting at the coming service in the Court of 
Women, we approach its western extremity, and 
there confront another flight of steps, fifteen in 
number, each half a cubit high, half a cubit broad, 
and semi-circular in shape. Here the Levites 
sing on the Feast of Tabernacles the fifteen psalms 
of degrees. Here too, close by the Nicanor Gate, 
at the head of the stairs, takes place all that must 



106 A DAY Itf THE TEMPLE. 

be done before the Lord ; here the cleansed 
lepers and the women after child-birth present 
themselves for purification ; the suspected wife 
here drinks the water of jealousy. 

Passing through the Gate of Nicanor wholly- 
made of Corinthianbrass,we enter the Court of Israel 
properly so called. It measures only eleven cubits 
from east to west, while it extends like the Court 
of Women, one hundred and thirty-five cubits 
north and south. For all practical purposes we 
may consider it as being one with the Court of 
Priests, from which it is separated by a balustrade 
only one cubit in height. Two steps, each half a 
cubit high, lead up to it. Besides, in the Priests' 
Court one mounts again by three semicircular 
steps of the legal height to a kind of pulpit or 
platform, on which as well as on the fifteen steps 
the Levites sing during the ordinary service. 
But does it not appear irreverent on our part to 
indulge in a curious examination of the sacred 
Temple courts and walls, while the devout multi- 
tude is absorbed in prayer, either lying prostrate 
on the floor or standing with uplifted hands ? 
And what are the priests doing all this while ? 

We remember that after salting the divers parts 
of the victim, the priests withdrew to the Hall of 
Polished Stones. So soon as they are assembled, 
the prefect of the lots Matthiah, orders the recital 
of the morning blessing. In slow and solemn tone 
of voice, aii join in the following prayers : — 

" With great love hast thou loved us, O Lord, 
our God, and with much overflowing pity hast 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 107 

thou pitied us. Our father and our king ! for the 
sake of our fathers who trusted in thee, and thou 
taughtest them the statutes of life, have mercy 
upon us, and enlighten our eyes in thy law ; cause 
our hearts to cleave to thy commandments ; unite 
our hearts to love and to fear thy name, and we 
shall not be put to shame, world without end. 
For thou art a God who preparest salvation, and 
us hast thou chosen from among all nations and 
tongues, and hast in truth brought us to thy great 
name, Selah, in order that we in love may praise 
thee and thy unity. Blessed be the Lord who in 
love chose his people Israel." 

" I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee 
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of 
bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods 
before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a 
graven image, nor the likeness of any form that is 
in the heaven above or that is in the earth 
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 
thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor 
serve them : for I the Lord thy God am a jealous 
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the 
children, upon the third and upon the fourth gen- 
eration of them that hate me ; and showing mercy 
unto thousands of them that love me and keep my 
commandments." 

" Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy 
God in vain ; for the Lord will not hold him guilt- 
less that taketh his name in vain." 

" Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 
Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; 



108 A DAY m THE TEMPLE. 

but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto the Lord 
thy God : in it thou shalt hot do any work, thou, 
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, 
nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy 
stranger that is within thy gates : for in six days 
the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all 
that is, and rested the seventh day : wherefore the 
Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." 

" Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy 
days may be long upon the land which the Lord 
thy God giveth thee." 

" Thou shalt do no murder." 

"Thou shalt not commit adultery." 

"■Thou shalt not steal." 

" Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy 
neighbor." 

" Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, 
thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his 
manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor 
his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's." * 

" Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one 
Lord : and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
thy might. And these words which I command 
thee this day, shall be upon thine heart : and thou 
shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and 
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine 
house, and when thou walkest by the way, and 
when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy 

* Exod. XX. 2-17. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 109 

hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine 
eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the door- 
posts of thy house and upon thy gates." * 

" And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken 
diligently unto my commandments which I com- 
mand you this day, to love the Lord your God, 
and to serve him with all your heart, and with all 
your soul, that I will give the rain of your land in 
its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that 
thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine and 
thy oil'. And I will give grass in thy fields for thy 
cattle, and thou shalt eat and be full. Take heed 
to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and ye" 
turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship 
them ; and the anger of the Lord be kindled 
against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there 
be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit ; 
and ye perish quickly from off the good land 
which the Lord giveth you. Therefore shall ye 
lay up these my words in your heart and in your 
soul; and ye shall bind them for a sign upon your 
hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your 
eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, 
talking of them when thou sittest in thine house, 
and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou 
liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou 
shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine 
house, and upon thy gates : that your days may 
be multiplied, and the days of your children, 
upon the land which the Lord sware unto your 



* Deut. VI. 4-9. 



110 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens 
above the earth." * 

"And the Lord spake unto Moses saying: 
Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them 
that they make them fringes in the borders of 
their garments throughout their generations, and 
that they put upon the fringe of each border a 
cord of blue : and it shall be unto you for a fringe 
that ye may look upon it, and remember all the 
commandments of the Lord, and do them ; and 
that you go not about after your own heart and 
your own eyes, after which you use to go a whor- 
ing, that ye may remember and do all my com- 
mandments, and be holy unto your God. I am 
the Lord your God, which brought you out of the 
land of Egypt to be your God : I am the Lord 
your God." f 

These prayers ended Matthiah calls in a loud 
voice : "Let the new ones approach and cast lots ! " 
Zachary, in spite of his old age, is among the new 
ones. For the lot to be cast will determine him 
who is to burn the incense. No one may perform 
this duty twice, or twice take part in the casting of 
the third lot, except in the rare case that all priests 
present have previously ministered in this office. 
From the words of DeuterononyJ the learned in 
the law infer that a special blessing attaches to 
the performance of this duty, a blessing which 
extends even to the priest's temporal goods. For 



* Dcut. XL 13-21. 
t Num. XV. 37-41. 

X xxx. io, ii. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. Ill 

the text says : " They shall put incense before 
thee, and whole burnt-offerings upon thine altar. 
Bless Lord, his substance, and accept the work 
of his hands : smite through the loins of them that 
rise up against him, and of them that hate him, 
that they rise not again." 

Never during all the long years of his faithful 
service has Zachary been called upon to perform 
this office of special divine benediction. Nor is 
he more successful now. Matthiah seizes the cap 
and counts the determined number of uplifted 
fingers in the customary way, and the lot falls on 
Simon, one of the youngest priests of the whole 
course of Abijah. 

" O," sighs Zachary within his heart, " that my 
vexation were but weighed, and my calamity laid 
in the balances together ! It would be heavier 
than the sands of the seas. The arrows of the 
Almighty are within me, the poison whereof my 
spirit drinketh up: the terrors of God do set 
themselves in array against me." 

" God does not cast away a perfect man," 
loudly jeers Abiathar ; " neither can he uphold 
the evil-doers. If thou wert pure and upright, 
Zachary, surely God would now awake for thee, 
and make the habitation of thy righteousness 
prosperous." 

" If I have sinned," murmurs Zachary, " what 
do I unto thee, O thou watcher of men ? why hast 
thou set me as a mark for thee, so that I am a 
burden to myself?" 

Meanwhile Simon selects two of his young 



112 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

companions as his assistants for the burning of 
incense, and Matthiah loudly invites those present 
to stand in line for the fourth lot, by which those 
are chosen who must lay the sacrifice and the 
meat-offerings on the altar, and pour out the 
drink-offering. All on whom no lot has fallen are 
now allowed to withdraw for the day. Accord- 
ingly, they prepare to retire to the building in the 
Court of Israel, north of the Gate of Nicanor. 
Pinchas the priestly wardrobe-keeper reigns here 
supreme. The sacerdotal garments are kept in 
ninety-six chests, each of the four articles of the 
priestly dress being placed in a separate compart- 
ment, bearing an inscription in accordance with 
its contents. " Breeches," " tunics," " girdles," 
"turbans," such are the various inscriptions 
engraven on the chests of the wardrobe. Since 
the apparel of the different courses is not mixed, 
there must be twenty-four boxes for every one of 
the four articles of the sacerdotal dress. 

When the priests are on the point of starting 
for Pinchas's department, Abiathar calls aloud for 
Abdiah and Zachary. A Levite is about to be 
scourged and they are to be present as witness- 
es and assistant ministers. Zachary bows his 
head in silent submission to his superior's orders, 
though he would rather suffer pain and shame 
himself than see it inflicted on any one else. On 
noticing his reluctance, Abiathar rejoices in his 
heart, at having discovered this simple way of 
annoying one whom he considers his deadly 
enemy. For does not the headship of Abijah's 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 113 

course as well as Abiathar's place in the Sanhe- 
drin, rightfully belong to Zachary ? As to Zach- 
ary's childlessness, which has thus far been the 
only obstacle preventing him from enjoying his 
rights, a whim of Herod with a corresponding 
decree of the obsequious Sanhedrin may, at any 
time, make Samuel Zachary's legal heir and thus 
restore its full rights to Josiah's house. 

Meanwhile Ben Bebai leads the culprit into a 
remote apartment of the Gazith, Zachary and 
Abijah following them. The law referring to this 
punishment, as contained in Deuteronomy,* pre- 
scribes "by a certain number, forty stripes he 
may give him." Instead of being taken as a sim- 
ple direction to give forty stripes, the law is 
explained as meaning a number near to forty, or 
thirty-nine, which accordingly is the severest cor- 
poreal punishment inflicted at one time. Even if 
the number of stripes be less than forty-nine, it is 
always a multiple of three, since the scourge is 
composed of three separate thongs, so that every 
stroke inflicts three stripes. The middle thong 
is made of calf's leather, the other two of asses', 
to verify Isaiah's words, " the ox knoweth his 
owner, and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel 
doth not -know, my people doth not consider." f 

Every detail of the punishment is determined 
by law. Ben Bebai inflicts the first third of the 
stripes on the culprit's bare breast, being careful 



* XXV, 2-3. 

f I. 3. 



114 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

that the ends of the thongs do not reach below 
the navel. The sufferer is tied in a reclining 
position during this portion of the punishment. 
The second and third parts of the legal number 
of stripes are inflicted on the bare back, over the 
sufferer's right and left shoulder respectively, his 
position being now a stooping one. From the 
Rabbinic description of this punishment and from 
St. Paul's words " of the Jews five times received 
I forty stripes save one," * we rightly infer its 
painful severity. 

While Ben Bebai administers the legal number 
of stripes, Abdiah reads aloud the words of 
Deuteronomy,f appointed for this occasion : " If 
thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this 
law that are written in this book, that thou mayest 
fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy 
God ; then the Lord will make thy plagues won- 
derful, and the plagues of thy # seed, even great 
plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sick- 
nesses, and of long continuance." So soon as 
the punishment is over, and the victim has his 
garments replaced, Zachary reads Asaph's sooth- 
ing words : J " But he, being full of compassion, 
forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not : 
yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and 
did not stir up all his wrath." The last part of the 
law ordaining that after his punishment the culprit 



* II. Cor. XI. 24. 
t XXVIII. 58-59. 
X Ps. LXXVIII. (Ixxvii.) I 



A DAT m THE TEMPLE. 115 

is not to be reproached, but received as a brother, 
is fulfilled so far as the sufferer's painful condition 
permits. 

While Zachary and Abdiah are thus detained 
in the Gazith, the other priests not destined by lot 
for one of to-day's sacred services pass across the 
court to the priestly wardrobe. As soon as 
they enter, Pinchas hands them their laydress. 
They divest themselves of girdle and tunic, and 
put on the common tunic, girdle and semlah. 
Then the priestly breeches are taken off, and 
excepting his grave and decorous deportment, 
there is now nothing external to distinguish the 
priest from the layman. 

By appointment, Samuel was to meet Zachary 
on his way to Pinchas's department. Accordingly, 
he has taken his position in the Court of Israel, 
and closely watches all the white-robed figures, 
as they noiselessly glide by. Samuel's look be- 
comes more troubled with the passage of every 
priest, and when the last two approach, he resolves, 
in spite of his reverent awe for the sacred place, 
to inquire for the reason of Zachary's delay. Obed 
has been observing all Samuel's movements, and 
now beckons him to come to Pinchas's depart- 
ment. 

"Zachary is detained in the Gazith," he ad- 
dresses Samuel, so soon as they are hid from the 
looks of the devout multitudes, "but he will join 
thee presently." 

Samuel casts an inquiring look at Obed; but 
the sacred surroundings and Obed's priestly attire 



116 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE, 

re-assure him. Obed notices Samuel's anxiety 
and smiling tells him of his lifelong friend- 
ship for Zachary, and his acquaintance with 
Zachary's family concerns. He shows that he 
knows the object of Samuel's presence, and hints 
at Zachary's disappointment over Samuel's pro- 
jects. 

"Zachary is my father's brother," explains 
Samuel, " and the last words of my dying mother 
were an exhortation to consult him in all my 
doubts and follow his advice in my way of life." 

"The wisdom of youth, Samuel, consists in 
obedience to the counsels of old age. Zachary 
fears to offend thy youthful longings by revealing 
to thee his wishes concerning thy future." 

" I have anticipated every one of Zachary's 
wishes," Samuel says more to himself than to his 
companion ; " I have considered all his words as 
sacred ; why then should he fear to disclose to me 
the wisdom of his counsel?" 

"Samuel, the eye of old age reaches further 
than the eye of youth ; as the offspring of Aaron 
is the chosen mediator between God and man, so 
old age is the natural link between the past and 
the future. What will our priesthood be in the 
future? Thou hast seen the priests of Bel and 
Istar at Babylon : dost thou envy their position or 
esteem their calling? What Babylon's priests are 
to us, our priests are to the Romans and to the 
world at large." 

For a moment Samuel is fairly stunned by 
Obed's impious words ; not even the most bitter 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 117 

enemies of the Jewish race whom Samu'el has met 
at Babylon have allowed themselves such language 
as he now hears in the house of the Lord from the 
lips of God's chosen priest and reputed servant. 
Obed immediately* perceives his mistake, and 
embracing Samuel exclaims: " A true Israelite, in 
whom there is no guile." Then he leads mV 
youthful companion to the place where Zachary's 
laydress is kept, and touching the clothing with a 
rather vigorous gesture of the hand, assures Samuel 
that he may there safely wait for Zachary's ar- 
rival. The whole apparel falls to the floor, 
and while they pick up the articles of dress, 
a case with a document drops out. Taking up 
the roll carefully, Samuel opens it and explains 
that it contains his genealogical record. Obed 
admires the well formed Babylonian letters which 
appear so irregular and are, nevertheless, drawn 
with such evident precision. After thus handling 
the document for a minute or two, Obed returns 
it with the greatest care, and Samuel who has 
noticed nothing extraordinary hides it in Zachary's 
dress. 

" Wilt thou, then, enter the ministering priest- 
hood in spite of thy mother's wish ? " resumes 
Obed. 

" It was my mother's wish that I should follow 
Zachary's guidance," answers Samuel rather im- 
patiently. 

" Zachary prefers to see thee united to Herod's 
family. Arrangements have been made for thy 
marriage with the king's niece." 



118 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

"Whoever thou be," says Samuel decidedly, 
"thou speakest untrue." 

" Youth is always rash," patiently rejoins Obed ; 
" hast thou ever compared the soldier's glory, the 
ruler's power, the sovereign's wealth, with the 
obscurity, the lowliness and poverty of Jehovah's 
priest ? His fame is circumscribed by the walls 
of the Temple, his resources are limited to the 
morsels he picks from the burnt-offerings, his oc- 
cupation is that of the butcher and the woodcut- 
ter." 

" Stranger ! may the God of our fathers open 
thine eyes to the glory of our nation and the dig- 
nity of the priesthood. A day in the courts of 
the Lord is better than a thousand. I had rather 
be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than 
dwell in the tents of wickedness." 

"Samuel, I hoped to be a herald' of glad 
tidings unto thee; God knoweth my sorrow at 
being thus obliged to pain thee. Thou seest this 
document, signed by Zachary's own hand ? Take 
and read." 

With trembling hands and pallid countenance, 
Samuel received the scroll from Obed. There is 
no mistake ; it bears the seal of Herod and below 
it Zachary's signature. The first part contains 
the customary phraseology of a marriage con- 
tract and would hardly interest Samuel, were it 
not for the fact that his own name figures as that 
of the bridegroom. With an artificial calmness 
Samuel glances at the conditions of the transaction. 
Herod's grandson is to marry Samuel's sistei, 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 119 

and in order to render such a union possible, the 
bride's house must be raised to the level of the 
royal family by the proposed marriage of Samuel. 
Zachary is appointed member of the Seventy- 
One, and Samuel may choose a position accord- 
ing to his liking, either at court or in the army. 
Another glance at the signatures, and the docu- 
ment is torn into pieces. Then Samuel quietly 
takes the scroll hid in Zachary's dress and with- 
out even looking at Obed he prepares to leave 
the wardrobe. 

" Thy doom is sealed, son of Ananiah," Obed 
utters with a voice that might have proceeded 
from the inmost heart of hatred incarnate, and 
instantly disappears into a curtained recess. 

Zachary and Abdiah have, meanwhile, found 
their way to the wardrobe ; in fact, their unex- 
pected appearance at the entrance was the cause 
of Obed's sudden departure. Samuel walks on 
with hurried steps, completely insensible to all his 
surroundings. The last few moments have been 
an eternity. A deep abyss yawns between the 
past and the present. His life has been a con- 
stant dream. Intellectually he has worshiped 
idols, his will has clung to deceit, and his love — 
his love is about to change to hatred. His state 
is similar to the soul's condition immediately after 
leaving its mortal body ; its past views of things 
are so many lies, its affections are sins, its sup- 
ports are broken reeds, its love is folly, only its 
relations to God are eternal truth. 

" Though an host should encamp against me, 
my heart shall not fear," murmurs Samuel. 



120 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

" Though war should rise against me," answers 
Zachary, who has overheard Samuel's soliloquy, 
" even then will I be confident." 

Instead of greeting the old priest in the custom- 
ary way, Samuel rejoins with a significant empha- 
sis and decision : " Mine head shall be lifted 
up above mine enemies round about me; and I 
will offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy." Then 
looking straight into Zachary's face ; Samuel adds: 
" All my inward friends abhor me, and they whom 
I loved are turned against me." 

Uttering these words he is about to leave the 
wardrobe, when Zachary steps in his way, and 
with all the authority of his age demands an ex- 
planation of Samuel's words and conduct. 

"The shreds of yonder parchment cry out 
against thee to heaven ! Thou hast betrayed my 
soul to my enemies, thou hast despised the dig- 
nity of Jehovah's priesthood, thou hast sold thy 
conscience for a place in the Sanhedrin." 

" Samuel, judgest thou thy friends unheard ? " 
replies the old priest with a voice quivering with 
emotion. " As God liyeth I know not what thou 
sayest." 

" The stranger, with anointed beard and smooth 
countenance, thy friend and accomplice, has 
shown me the contract by which thou hast bound 
me to Herod's niece, and removed me and mine 
forever from the altar of the Most High." 

"Obed the Herodian has deceived thy sim- 
plicity, Samuel; Matthiah will bear witness to my 
truthfulness. For more than ten years has he 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 121 

kept the contract by which I have promised thee 
to his daughter Ismeria, provided it should so 
please thee and her. I should not have openly 
told thee of this, had not the circumstances forced 
me." 

The sound of the Magrephah which now fills all 
the Temple courts prevents further explanations. 
For while the conversation took place in the 
department of Pinchas, Simon, the incensing 
priest, has taken a silver saucer covered with a lid, 
inside of which there is a smaller golden saucer 
containing the incense. The latter is composed 
in strict accordance with the divine precept : * 
" The Lord said to Moses : Take unto thee sweet 
spices, stacte and onycha, and galbanum ; sweet 
spices with pure frankincense : of each shall there 
be a like weight ; and thou shalt make of it 
incense, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, 
seasoned with salt, pure and holy : and thou shalt 
beat some of it very small, and put of it before 
the testimony in the tent of meeting, where I will 
meet with thee : it shall be unto you most holy. 
And the incense which thou shalt make, according 
to the composition thereof ye shall not make for 
yourselves : it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord. 
Whoever shall make like unto that, to smell 
thereto, he shall be cut off from his people." 

According to the Rabbinic writers, thirteen 
substances, not reckoning the salt, form the com- 
ponent parts of incense. Ambra and a herb giving 



* Ex. XXX. 34. 



122 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

out a dense smoke are especially mentioned. The 
whole year's service requires a total amount of 
about three hundred and sixty-eight pounds of 
incense, about half a pound being burned every 
morning and evening. 

Josephus has it that the thirteen kinds of sweet 
smelling ingredients are furnished by the sea, in 
order to signify that God is the Lord of all things, 
both of the habitable and the uninhabitable parts 
of the earth, and that all must be dedicated to his 
service. In a similar spirit the same author ex- 
plains that the seven lamps signify the seven 
planets, and that the twelve loaves of showbread 
mean the twelve signs of the Zodiac. We are 
already acquainted with a side gate, called after 
Abtinas, in the southeastern corner of the inner 
court, close by the Gazith. The name is due to 
the fact that the family of Abtinas, which has 
charge of the incense manufacture, exercises its 
art in the Chamber of Abtinas, situated over this 
gate, and forming part of the Gazith. 

One of Simon's assistants has in the meantime 
taken a silver and a golden pan, the former large 
enough to hold four, and the latter to hold three 
kabs — a kab is nearly three pints — and ascending 
the altar of burnt-offering, he fills the silver pan 
with live coals from the fire on the south side of 
the altar, and empties the vessel into the golden 
pan. About one kab of coals is supposed to be 
spilled during this process. 

To prevent accidents, the spilled coals are care- 
fully swept into the channel which carries all the 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 123 

offal of the Temple into the valley of Kedron. 
On Sabbath days the spilled coals are covered 
over with a pot-shaped vessel, large enough to 
hold half a homer, or a little over sixteen pecks. 
It serves three purposes : to carry out the ashes 
from the altar of burnt-offering, to cover the spilled 
coals on the Sabbath, and to cover any reptile 
that may be found in the court on the Sabbath. 
For on the day of rest neither reptile nor coal can 
be removed from the court, though the reptile 
must be removed even on this day, if it is found in 
the porch of the Temple itself. 

Simon and his two assistants, the one carrying 
the censer filled with burning coals, the other 
holding the double incense-boat, turn to their left 
and slowly approach the steps of the Temple 
porch. They are preceded by the two priests 
who in the morning cleansed the altar of incense 
and trimmed the lamps of the candlestick. Pass- 
ing through the space between the altar and the 
stairs, they sound the Magrephah and for a moment 
no one in the Holy City can hear the voice of his 
friend and his neighbor. The priests, on hearing 
the sound, know that the hour of incense has 
come; they hasten to a place between the Court 
of Israel and the altar of burnt-offering, to bow 
down and adore. The Levites, too, hear the Ma- 
grephah, and know that they must hurry to their 
pulpit-shaped platform in the Court of Priests so as 
to be in time for the approaching psalmody. The 
chief of the " stationary men " recognizes in the 
sound a signal for bringing all those that are to be 



124 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

purified to the Gate of Nicanor, and for arranging 
them in their legal position. 

Three of the more elderly priests speak a few 
solemn words to the youthful Simon, before the 
latter reaches the foot of the stair-way leading to 
the Temple porch. " Take care," says the first ; 
" begin at the off-side of the altar," adds another; 
"beware of the fire," is a third's warning. Slow- 
ly the incensing priest, preceded by the two 
assistants and the two other sacred ministers, 
ascends the easy steps of the Temple porch, and 
soon disappears within the door of the sanctuary. 
When the altar of incense is reached, he who has 
cleansed it takes the Teni, makes a low reverence 
and withdraws. His companion approaches the 
candlestick, and trims the two lamps left untrim- 
med in the morning; he then takes up the Cuz, 
makes a deep reverence and withdraws. Then 
the censer-bearer spreads the live coals upon the 
altar of incense, and evenly distributes them on 
the surface with the foot of the censer. After 
this he too makes a deep reverence, and retires 
from the sanctuary. Meanwhile, the assistant 
who carries the incense-boat, takes the interior 
golden saucer out of the exterior silver one, and 
hands it to Simon. He carefully pours the few 
grains spilled in the external boat, into the hand 
of the sacred minister, and then retires, imitating 
his companion in the low reverence. 

No sooner has the presiding priest seen the last 
assistant minister appear in the Temple porch, 
than he gives the loud command, "burn the 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 125 

incense." Trembling and awestruck, Simon ex- 
tends his hand with the golden incense-boat, and 
pours the precious material upon the burning 
coals, being careful to begin at the further end of 
the altar, facing the Holy of Holies. The cloud 
of sweet smelling perfume fills the whole place, 
and Simon lies prostrate before the face of the 
Most High. 

In the courts without, the whole multitude 
falls down before the Lord, spreading the hands 
in silent prayer. Tradition has faithfully pre- 
served the very words : " True it is that thou 
art Jehovah our God, and the God of our fathers ; 
our Saviour and the Saviour of our fathers; 
our King and the King of our fathers ; our Maker 
and the rock of our salvation ; our Help and our 
Deliverer. Thy name is from everlasting, and 
there is no God beside thee. A new song did 
they that were delivered sing to thy name by the 
sea-shore ; together did they all praise and own 
thee as king, and say Jehovah shall reign who 
saveth Israel." 

" Be graciously pleased, Jehovah our God, with 
thy people Israel, and with their prayer. Re- 
store the service to the oracle of thy house ; and 
the burnt-offerings of Israel and their prayer accept 
graciously and in love ; and let the service of thy 
people Israel be ever well pleasing unto thee." 

" We praise thee, who art Jehovah our God, 
and the God of our fathers, the God of all flesh, 
our Creator, and the Creator from the beginning ! 
Blessing and praise be to thy great and holy 



126 A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 

name, that thou hast preserved us in life and kept 
us. So preserve us and keep us, and gather the 
scattered ones into thy holy courts, to keep thy 
statutes, and to do thy good pleasure, to serve 
thee with our whole heart, as this day we confess 
unto thee. Blessed be the Lord unto whom be- 
longeth praise. " 

"Appoint peace, goodness and blessing, grace, 
mercy, and compassion for us, and for all Israel, 
thy people. Bless us, oh our Father, all of us as 
one, with the light of thy countenance. For in 
the light of thy countenance hast thou, Jehovah, 
our God, given us the law of life, and loving mercy, 
and righteousness, and blessing, and compassion, 
and life and peace. And may it please thee to 
bless .thy people Israel at all times, and at every 
hour with thy peace. May we and all thy people 
Israel be remembered and written before thee in 
the book of life, with blessing and peace and sup- 
port. Blessed be thou, Jehovah, who blessest thy 
people Israel with peace." 

After the prayer, the priest who has trimmed 
the candlestick, once more enters the Holy Place, 
and there lights two lamps which are to burn 
throughout the day before the Lord. This duty 
performed, he joins the incensing priest and in his 
company leaves the sanctuary in order to take his 
stand together with the three other sacred ministers 
at the top of the stairs which lead from the 
Temple porch down into the Court of Priests. 
They all hold the insignia, as it were, of their 
morning office in their hand, the Teni, the Cuz, 



A DAY IX THE TEMPLE. 127 

the censer, the silver saucer for the incense-boat, 
and the incense-boat itself. The rest of the priests 
who are not actively engaged about the burnt- 
offering and its accompanying sacrifices, gather 
together on the steps in front of the Temple 
porch. 

He on whom the fourth lot has fallen, now 
ascends the altar, and entering the sacerdotal cir- 
cuit on the south side, he turns to the right and 
proceeds to the middle of the east side. The 
priests who carried the divers parts of the victim 
and the necessary sacrifices to the inclined ascent, 
take up their several portions, and present them 
to the priest in front of the altar, who presses his 
hands upon them severally, and then flings them 
confusedly upon the altar. Thus the victim's flesh 
is scattered, as its blood has been sprinkled at the 
foot of the altar. When all the parts are laid on 
the altar, the priest arranges them, as well as he 
can, in the same relative position which they 
occupied in the live victim. 

Look once more at the five priests standing on 
the stairs which lead to the Temple porch. Group- 
ed in a semi-circular line, they lift up their hands 
above their head, while they join their fingers in 
a mystical way, so as to separate the thumbs from 
the fingers, and the two inner from the two outer 
fingers. May we not suppose that in this manner 
the mystery of the Holy Trinity is, at least, ob- 
scurely indicated? Simon clearly and distinctly 
pronounces the priestly blessing, the other four 
joining in the words so soon as they hear Simon's 



128 A DAY IN" THE TEMPLE. 

voice : " Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee ; Je- 
hovah make his face shine upon thee, and be 
gracious unto thee : Jehovah lift up his counten- 
ance upon thee, and give thee peace." In a slow 
and solemn tone of voice the vast multitudes 
of the devout worshipers respond : " Blessed be 
the Lord God, the God of Israel, from everlast- 
ing to everlasting." * 

Perhaps the Jewish ceremonial of to-day will 
throw light on the ritual blessing of old. In the 
synagogues the reputed Jewish priest joins his 
uplifted and outspread hands by making the tips 
of the first fingers touch each other. At the 
same time, the thumb is separated from the hand, 
and the first and second fingers of each hand are 
knit together, and divided from the joint third and 
fourth fingers. Representations of this ceremony 
may be seen on the tombstones of Jewish priests. 
Though the word "Jehovah" is replaced by 
" Lord " in the present synagogue blessing, it is 
not certain that a similar substitution was custom- 
ary at the time we are considering. The disguis- 
ed voice and the veiled face now customary, may 
be safely supposed to have been entirely un- 
known in the blessing at Zachary's time. 

When the voice of the priests dies out in the 
courts, and the smoke of the burnt-offering curls 
upward through the morning air, the meat-offer- 
ing is presented to the Lord. According to God's 
explicit command, laid down in the Book of Num- 



: Num. VI. 24-26. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 129 

bers, * " he that offereth his oblation shall offer 
unto the Lord a meat-offering of a tenth part of an 
ephah of fine flour mingled with the fourth part 
of a hin of oil : and wine for the drink-offering, 
the fourth part of a hin, shalt thou prepare with 
the burnt-offering or for the sacrifice, for each 
lamb." Oil is, as a matter of course, added in 
the prescribed manner and quantity. For, as the 
Rabbinic Doctors tell us, every meat-offering pre- 
pared in a vessel has three pourings of oil ; the 
first, into the vessel, the second, to mingle with 
the flour ; the third after the offering is ready. 
Lastly, salt is added to the sacrifice, and the 
whole is laid on the fire. 

Next, the high priest's meat-offering is oiled, 
salted and placed on the altar. It consists of 
twelve half-cakes, the other halves being reserved 
for the evening sacrifice. 

The order of the meat-offerings here described 
does not contradict the words of St. Paul : " For 
such a high priest became us, holy, guileless, un- 
defined, separated from sinners, and made higher 
than the heavens; who needeth not daily, like 
those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for 
his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. "f 
For the Apostle principally insists on the ineffi- 
ciency of the Old Testament sacrifices as compared 
with the bloody sacrifice of the New Law; besides, 
he only maintains that the high priest's sin-offer- 



* Num. XVI. 11-6. 
t Heb. VII. 26-27. 



130 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

ing must precede the people's. But the daily 
meat-offering is not the high priest's sin-offer- 
ing. 

Finally, the drink-offering is poured out at the 
foot of the altar. When the priest is bending 
forward to perform this duty, the presiding priest, 
standing near the southeastern horn of the altar 
of burnt-offering, waves a handkerchief-like piece 
of cloth. Upon this signal, Ben Arsa, the keeper 
of the warning cymbal, who stands near the table 
of fat, west of the ascent to the altar, strikes his 
instrument. Immediately, the priests take their 
position to the right and left of Ben Arsa, their 
face turned eastward, towards the people. The 
Levites crowding the fifteen steps of the Nicanor 
Gate, face westward, towards the sanctuary. The 
Levitical choir accompanied by instrumental 
music, begins the psalm of the day. 

Not less than twelve voices may ever sustain 
the choir, and the charming treble of specially 
trained Levites' children mingles with the deep 
voices of their fathers. The offspring of the chil- 
dren now singing in the Temple, will rehearse on 
the memorable Sunday of Christ's entry into Jeru- 
salem the psalm which they have rendered on the 
preceding Feast of Tabernacles: "Save now, we 
beseech thee, O Lord : O Lord, we beseech thee, 
send now prosperity. Blessed is he that cometh 
in the name of the Lord : we have blessed you 
out of the house of the Lord." And Jesus himself 
will defend their song against their jealous parents 
by referring to the words of the psalm: "Out of 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 131 

the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast per- 
fected praise." 

" The number of the instrumental performers is 
not limited, nor is the office confined to the Le- 
vites strictly so called. Several prominent families, 
intermarried with the priestly tribe, are admitted 
to the rank of musicians. But as to the trump- 
eters, they may not* be fewer than two, nor 
more numerous than a hundred and twenty ; for 
there were only a hundred and twenty present at 
the dedication of the first Temple, which number 
may, therefore, not be exceeded. Besides, only 
priests may blow the silver trumpets. 

The other musical instruments may be reduced 
to three classes : wind instruments, stringed instru- 
ments, and vibrating instruments. Josephus tes- 
tifies that Solomon, after the erection of the first 
Temple, made two hundred thousand trumpets 
according to the command of Moses, two hundred 
thousand garments of fine linen for the singers 
that were Levites, and forty thousand musical 
instruments, and such as were invented for the 
singing of hymns called Nablae and Cinyrae, or 
psalteries and harps, made of electrum. No doubt 
this report is a gross exaggeration. For as to the 
vibrating bars and surfaces, only one pair of cym- 
bals was allowed to be used. Indeed, even this 
" sounding brass " and " tinkling cymbal " does 
not belong to the Temple music proper; it only 
gives the signal when the latter is to begin. May 
not the Apostle have considered this as an addi- 



132 A DAY m THE TEMPLE. 

tional reason for comparing it with the external 
extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost ? 

The Rabbis mention so many as thirty-six dif- 
ferent kinds of musical instruments, of which 
the Bible knows only fifteen, and the Pentateuch 
only five. The principal stringed instruments are 
the Nebel (lute) and the Kinnor(harp). The chief 
difference between these two instruments consists 
in this, that in the Nebel the strings are drawn 
over the sounding board, while in the Kinnorthey 
stand out free as in our harp. Besides, accord- 
ing to Josephus, the Nebel had twelve strings 
and was played with one hand, while the Kinnor 
had only ten strings and was played with the plect- 
rum. The Rabbinic doctors accurately determine 
the number of each kind of instruments allowable 
in the Temple music. There may not be fewer 
than two, and not more than six Nebels, while the 
Kinnors must at least be nine, and they may be 
multiplied at pleasure. There are, of course, sev- 
eral varieties of both Nebel and Kinnor; but from 
all we know of them, we must infer that the Kin- 
nor is the chief and leading instrument, while the 
Nebel serves as its accompaniment. 

Besides the cymbals and stringed instruments, 
reed pipes or flutes are also used in the Temple 
on twelve different occasions : "the day of killing 
the first, and that of killing the second Passover, 
the first day of unleavened bread, Pentecost, and 
the eight days of the Feast of Tabernacles." Not 
less than two and not more than twelve flutes are 
allowed on these occasions, and the melody must 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 133 

close with the notes of only one flute. Every Jew 
is bound to provide at least two flutes and one 
mourning woman at the funeral of his wife. The 
sound of the same instrument is heard at the joy- 
ful marriage feasts and at the processions of the 
pilgrims going up to Jerusalem and chanting in 
festive strains the Psalms of Degrees. 

In addition to these we know of three other 
wind instruments employed in the Temple. The 
first is the organ-shaped Magrephah, consisting 
according to Rabbinic tradition of a row of ten 
pipes, each of which has ten holes, and is thus 
eanbled to emit ten different sounds. This instru- 
ment seems to have served merely for giving sig- 
nals. Trumpets too, are in regular use, and while 
the playing of the instruments hitherto mentioned 
is left to the Levites, with some doubtful excep- 
tions as to the use of the reed-pipes, the 
blowing of trumpets is reserved to the 
priests. Priests also blow the Shophar or horn. 
Originally the Shophar was a ram's horn, but prob- 
ably later on it was made of brass. Its loud and far- 
sounding tones make it especially fit for the feast 
of the New Year and for fast days, on which oc- 
casions it alone is blown in the synagogues out- 
side of Jerusalem. The year of Jubilee, too, is 
announced by the sound of the Shophar, and what 
is more, derives its name from this practice. If 
the New Moon be added to the occasions thus far 
mentioned, we have a complete list of the occa- 
sions on which the use of the Shophar is pre- 
scribed. It may be of interest to know that on 



134 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

the Feast of the New Year a priest with the Shop- 
har is placed between those who blow the trum- 
pets, while on fast-days priests with the Shophar 
stand on each side of the trumpeters. 

But the vocal music is of far more importance 
in the Temple service than the instrumental. It 
should seem that in the first Temple the people 
responded while the Levites led the song.* When 
the foundations of the second Temple were laid, 
and when the wall of Jerusalem was dedicated, 
the singing was again antiphonal ; but the two 
choirs soon combined and sang in unison in the 
Temple. f In Ezra J and in Nehemiah § there is 
even mention of women singing in the Temple. 
But the female voices must have been soon re- 
placed by the boys' treble. The Rabbinic Doc- 
tors maintain that a good voice is an essential qual- 
ification for a Levite. The Temple melodies are 
perhaps best represented by the synagogue airs 
now in use; Gregorian music, too, must have an 
affinity with the Jewish psalmody. Absolute cer- 
tainty on matters of this nature cannot be ex- 
pected at a period when the sanctuary and the 
Holy City have been sacked ten times by hostile 
armies. 

We are more fortunate when there is question 
of the special hymns that were chanted on the 



* 1 Par. XVI. 36; Jer. XXXIII. 11; Ps. XXVI. 12; 
LXVIII. 26. 

t Ezra III. 10, 11; Neh. XII. 27, 40. 
% II. 65. 
§ VII. 67. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 135 

several days of the week, after the burnt-offering 
was laid on the altar. Psalm XXIV. (XXIII.) 
" the earth is the Lord's," was chanted on the first 
day of the week in commemoration of the first 
day of creation. For on that day " God possessed 
the world and ruled it." On the second day " the 
Lord divided his works and ruled over them;" 
hence they sang Psalm XLVIII. (XLVII.) 
" Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised." 
On the third day " the earth appeared, on which 
are the Judge and the judged," a fact commem- 
orated by Psalm LXXXII. (LXXXI.) "God 
standeth in the congregation of the mighty." 
Because God will be avenged on them that 
worship the sun, the moon and the stars which 
he made on the fourth day, Psalm XCIV. (XCII.) 
is sung on Wednesday : " O Lord God, to whom 
vengeance belongeth." " Sing aloud unto God 
our strength/' or Psalm LXXXI. (LXXX.) was 
intoned on the fifth day to celebrate the " variety 
of creatures made that day to praise his name." 
On the sixth day " God finished his works and 
made man, and the Lord ruled over his works ; " 
hence they sang'Psalm XCIII. (XCII.) " The Lord 
reigneth." The Sabbath is the symbol of the 
kingdom at the end of the six thousand years dis- 
pensation, when the Lord will reign over all, and 
his glory and service fill the earth with thanks- 
giving : Psalm XCII. (XCI. ) " It is a good thing to 
give thanks unto the Lord," is therefore specially 
adapted to the Sabbath day. 

To-day, as on all other occasions, the Psalm is 



136 A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 

sung in three sections : at the close of each the 
priests draw three blasts from their silver trump- 
ets, while the people adore and worship. The 
Psalm ended, the great bulk of the worshippers 
leave the Temple, going out by the left. Only- 
priests, Levites and special devotees prolong their 
prayers and tarry in the courts. 



CHAPTER V. 

AMONG THE RABBIS. 

Samuel's attention is absorbed by a man of 
very noble aspect, clear, healthful complexion ; 
bright, black eyes ; beard long and flowing, and 
rich with ointments; apparel well fitting, costly 
and suitable for the season. He slowly walks 
across the Priests' Court, his face turned to the 
ground, in company of three persons, one at 
each side, the third behind him. Every one in 
the court pays the greatest reverence to the 
party of four, and Samuel's face clearly shows 
signs of a suppressed curiosity. 

" The anointed of the Lord, .my son, " says 
Zachary, " and the rightful successor of Aaron. " 

Samuel's look becomes more eager and inter- 
ested than before. Much has he heard of the 
high priest in power ; but he has never seen the 
representative of Jehovah upon earth. 

" Is this Matthiah the son of Theophilus, the 
high priest ? " he inquires in a low whisper. 

" Thou sayest it, my son," replies Zachary ; 



A DAY m THE TEMPLE. 137 

"thou seest before thee the successor of Sim- 
eon the son of Boethus the Alexandrian. The 
latter was deposed last year from his high priestly 
dignity, after holding it for about twenty years. 
Though the change was made by the arbitrary 
power of Herod, no single priest objected to it; all 
hated the intruder and the foreigner, raised to the 
exalted dignity through the lowest motives of pas- 
sion and court intrigue." 

" Must we not reverence him that sitteth in the 
chair of Aaron, " rejoins Samuel, " though he be 
not entirely worthy of his place ? " 

" Truly," says Zachary, as if speaking to him- 
self, " the simple believe every report and thus 
inherit folly. Hear, my son, the story of Simeon's 
elevation and fall, that thou mayest not judge thy 
elders rashly." 

Lowering his tone so as to be heard by Samuel 
alone, Zachary rehearses the scandal which a lit- 
tle more than twenty years ago had filled Jerusa- 
lem and, indeed, the whole Jewish nation with 
anger and despair. 

"Though Simeon himself was a citizen of 
Jerusalem, his father Boethus was a citizen of 
Alexandria, and a priest of great note there. 
Simeon's daughter was esteemed the most beauti- 
ful woman of her time, and when the peo- 
ple of Jerusalem began to speak much in her 
praise, Herod was affected with what was said of 
her. And when he saw the damsel, he was smitten 
with her beauty. Believing that by abusing her, 
he should be stigmatized for violence and tyranny, 



138 A DAY /AT THE TEMPLE. 

he thought it best to take her to wife. And since 
Simeon's dignity was too inferior to be allied to 
Herod, but still too considerable to be despised, 
the king governed his inclinations after the most 
crooked manner. In order to raise the standing 
of Simeon's family and make it more honorable, 
he immediately deprived Jesus the son of Phabes 
of the high priesthood, and conferred that dignity 
on Simeon, and then joined in affinity with him 
by marrying his daughter." 

" How is the gold become dim ! " exclaims 
Samuel; "how is the most pure gold changed ! 
The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the 
top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, 
comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as 
earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the 
potter ! But how did it come to pass that Herod 
respected not the creature of his own hand ? " 

"The high priest's daughter, the second 
Mariamne, was accused last year of having been 
conscious of Antipater's conspiracy against his 
father. Herod, therefore, divorced her and blot- 
ted the name of her son Herod Philip out of his 
testament, wherein he had been appointed as 
Herod's successor. And he took the high priest- 
hood away from his father-in-law, Simeon the son 
of Boethus, and made Matthiah the son of The- 
ophilus, who is born in Jerusalem, high priest in 
his place." 

" Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us ! " 
sighs Samuel; "behold and see our reproach. 
Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 139 

unto aliens. We are orphans and fatherless, our 
mothers are as widows " — " But what manner of 
man is Matthiah ? " continues Samuel after a 
momentary silence ; " he does not even wear the 
phylacteries, and his fringes are hardly noticeable." 

" My son," replies Zachary, "we are living under 
the rule of a half-pagan Idumean ; it is only his 
despotic iron hand that prevents an uprising of 
the fermenting masses. Phylacteries and fringes 
might exasperate the tyrant, especially since six 
thousand of the men noted for a display of these 
signs refused to swear fidelity to Caesar and Herod. 
Their fine was, indeed, paid by the wife of Pher- 
oras, Herod's brother, but a number of them were 
put to death not more than two years ago. Mat- 
thiah observes all the laws of purification scrupu- 
lously so far as they do not attract attention, and 
bring him into the immediate suspicion of Herod. 
.Even on the last Day of Atonement he showed 
this faithfulness to an admirable degree. During 
the night, Matthiah seemed in a dream to have 
conversation with his wife. Though most anxious 
to officiate on that great occasion, because he had 
never before done so, and his future chance is 
very uncertain, he nevertheless refrained from the 
sacerdotal service on that day, and allowed Jo- 
seph the son of Ellemus his kinsman to minister 
in his place." 

" Would that faithfulness to the law were the 
girdle of our reins," rejoined Samuel; "but 
whither is the high priest going ? Is there any 
special gate in the western wall of the court?" 



140 A DAY IN* THE TEMPLE. 

" During the day," said Zachary, " Matthiah re- 
sides in his rooms near the Wood-Gate in the 
southwestern corner of the court. At night he 
stays in his residence on the southern si'de of 
Mount Zion." 

Meanwhile Samuel and Zachary have left the 
Hall of Polished Stones, and passing across the 
eastern part of the Court of Priests, they proceed 
towards the Nicanor Gate. To Samuel's surprise, 
the priests who have taken part in the offering of 
the morning sacrifice and its preparation, are busy 
slaughtering a bullock in precisely the same 
manner in which they killed the lamb. Besides, 
there are several of lambs evidently waiting for 
their turn, and other priests are bringing a cage 
of pigeons, all to be sacrificed on the altar of 
burnt-offering. 

At the gate itself stands Jochanan the son of 
Pinchas, surrounded by an eager but devout num- 
ber of men. Near him stands a huge basket full 
of seals or counterfoils. A closer examination 
shows that the seals or checks, as we would call 
them, are of four kinds", corresponding to the four 
kinds of meat-offering required by the different 
sacrifices. Every one receives that counterfoil 
which answers the sum of money he pays to 
Jochanan. So soon as the desired check is ob- 
tained, the purchaser hands it to Achiah the over- 
seer of the drink-offering. The latter official re- 
deems it by giving in return the due amount of 
drink-offering. Sacrificial turtle-doves and pig- 
eons are procured in a similar manner from Peta- 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 141 

chiah the overseer of the birds. The process is, 
however, not so complicated. Those who wish to 
offer such sacrifices drop the money requisite into 
one of the ordinary money-boxes in the treasury, 
whereupon Petachiah purchases the requisite sac- 
rifices so soon as possible. 

" Is it not written," remarks Samuel, " the one 
lamb shalt thou offer in the morning and the other 
lamb shalt thou offer at even ? Why then are the 
priests still offering those numerous sacrifices 
which we see before us ? 

" Besides the eleven public sacrifices prescribed 
by the law, my son, there are a number of private 
offerings either legally prescribed or left to the 
good will and generosity of the faithful. Some of 
these are burnt-offerings, others again sin and 
trespass-offerings, others meat-offerings, others 
again peace-offerings. Even the Gentiles are 
permitted to offer victims as holocausts, and to 
bring the accompanying meat and drink-offering, 
while the sacrifices that are obligatory, such as sin 
and trespass-offerings, and those succeeding is- 
sues and childbirth, cannot be offered by Gen- 
tiles." 

" Do we sacrifice the abomination of the nations 
to the Lord our God ? " inquired Samuel. " May 
we not say with Moses : Lo, shall we sacrifice the 
abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, 
and will they not stone us ? " 

" Another passage of the law, my son, speaks 
even more explicitly than that to which thou re- 
ferrest. ' Neither from the hand of a foreigner,' 



142 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

the law says, * shall you offer the bread of your 
God of any of these ; because the corruption is in 
them, there is a blemish in them; they shall not 
be accepted for you.' Still our Doctors have 
seen in this very text a reason for accepting the 
offerings of the Gentiles. The words ' any of these,' 
refer according to them to blemished animals; 
and since God has forbidden, they say, to accept 
blemished victims from the hand of foreigners, 
he grants the permission to accept from them 
animals that are fit to be offered on the altar." 

" Is not this one of the lax interpretations put 
upon the law in the school of Hillel?" asked 
Samuel. 

"Where Hillel is named, my son, there should 
be reverence upon the lips of the speaker. 
Besides, this explanation of the law is not new ; 
Alexander the Great thus sacrificed in the Temple ; 
Ptolemy III. offered sacrifices in the same man- 
ner ; Antiochus VII., though at open feud with our 
nation and in the very act of besieging our Holy 
City, on the Feast of Tabernacles sent sacrifices 
to the Temple with the view of disposing Jehovah 
in his favor. When Marcus Agrippa visited our 
city, about ten years ago, he presented a hecatomb 
to be offered to the Lord, and the very offerings 
which are now immolated, are sacrifices for 
Augustus. For he has ordained that in all time 
coming two lambs and a bullock must be offered 
every day at his expense in behalf of Caesar and 
the Roman people." 

"Are then all the offerings which are now 



A DAY ffl THE TEMPLE. 143 

about to be presented to the Lord, gifts of the 
heathen and the Gentiles ? " inquired Samuel. 

" How canst thou ask such a question, seeing 
those women at the Gate of Nicanor, putting into 
the hand of the officiating priest the offerings for 
their purification and mingling their prayers and 
thanksgivings with the sacrificial service ? now they 
are sprinkled with the sacrificial blood, and de- 
clared to be cleansed. The young mothers who 
linger at the uppermost step even after their puri- 
fication is complete, wait to redeem their firstborn 
at the hand of the priest with five shekels of sil- 
ver, and to have the two corresponding benedic- 
tions read over them, one for the happy event 
which has enriched the family with a firstborn, the 
other for the law of redemption." 

For Samuel and Zachary this ceremony had 
not yet all the pious associations it has for us in 
these latter days. St. Luke's story of Mary's 
purification is yet to be accomplished : " And 
when the days of their purification according to 
the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him 
up to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord, 
as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male 
that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the 
Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to that 
which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of 
turtledoves or two young pigeons." 

Now, another sight absorbs Samuel's attention. 
Often has he heard and read of the ceremonial 
for the cleansing of a leper, but now, for the first 
time, he sees the rite put in practice. Two priests 



144 A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 

enter by the Gate of Nicanor, the one carrying a 
vessel filled with sacrificial blood, the other hold- 
ing part of the blood in the hollow of his hand. 
They come from the Chamber of Lepers in the 
Women's Court, where the healed leper has slain 
his trespass-offering, after laying his hands upon it. 
The blood has been caught up by the two priests 
as it welled forth from the victim's deadly wound. 
The priest who carries the vessel goes up to the 
altar, and pours the blood at its side. The sec- 
ond priest stands in the great court near the Gate 
of Nicanor, and awaits the arrival of the healed 
person who is bathing in the Lepers' Chamber. 
He now ascends the fifteen steps, and stands in 
the Gate, being not yet allowed to proceed any 
further. Bending his body, he thrusts his head 
into the great court, and the priest puts of the blood 
on the tip of his ear. Then the leper stretches 
his hand into the court, whereupon the priest 
anoints his thumb with the blood. In the third 
place, he thrusts his foot into the court, and the 
priest anoints the great toe with the sacrificial 
blood. After this, the priest takes the sacrificial 
log of oil and pours some of it into the hand of 
his colleague ; then dipping his fingers into the 
oil, he sprinkles it seven times toward the Holy of 
Holies, dipping each time he sprinkles. Now he 
approaches the healed leper and on the spot where 
he has put the blood, he puts the oil, as it is writ- 
ten : " Upon the blood of the trespass offering." 
The remnant of the oil in the priest's hand, is 
poured upon the head of the leper for an atone- 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 145 

ment, and as soon as he pours it, the leper is 
atoned for. 

" Do not lepers often lose their fingers and toes 
during the course of their infirmity? " inquires 
Samuel. " And if they do, how can they be 
c'eansed?" 

" In that case, " answers Zachary, " the leper 
cannot ever be cleansed according to the view of 
Rabbi Jehudah. But Rabbi Eliezer is of opinion 
that the spots where the ringers and toes have 
been, must be anointed. Rabbi Simeon says : If 
the oil and blood be applied on the corresponding 
left side of the leper's body, it sufficeth. But all 
this will be fully explained in the Beth-ha-Midrash 
by Judas and Matthiah. They will also teach 
thee the ceremonial to be observed in offering the 
leper's sin and burnt-offering and the whole ritual 
accompanying the first stage of his cleansing. " 

Without delaying at the Gate of Nicanor, Zach- 
ary and Samuel join Matthiah who is about to go 
to the Beth-ha-Midrash where Judas is already sur- 
rounded by his numerous pupils. Passing across 
the Court of Women, they go through the Beautiful 
Gate, and then direct their steps to the Royal 
Porch. On the way, they speak about the multi- 
tude of sacrifices that are daily offered after the 
morning oblation has been brought. The time 
between the morning and evening service some- 
times hardly suffices to perform the necessary 
work. Meanwhile, they approach the crowd of 
men and youths assembled in the Royal Porch to 
hear the wisdom of Judas and Matthiah, 
10 



146 A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 

" How do the masters teach ? " Maimonides asks 
in one of his numerous treaties. 

" The Doctor sits at the head, and the disciples 
around him in a crown, that all may see the Doc- 
tor and hear his words. Nor is the Doctor seated 
on a seat, and the disciples on the ground, but all 
are on seats, or all on the floor. " 

Though a passage in the Talmud has it that 
"from the days of Moses to Rabban Gamaliel they 
stood up to learn the Law ; but when Rabban 
Gamaliel died, sickness came into the world, and 
they sat down to learn the Law, " it is not easy to 
reconcile this sentence with other authorities on 
the same subject. " To sit at the feet of a 
teacher," was a proverbial expression among 
Zachary's contemporaries, as when Mary is said 
to have sat at the feet of Jesus, and St. Paul is 
placed at the feet of Gamaliel. 

It is also a received maxim among the Jews, 
■' place thyself in the dust at the feet of the wise." 
Philo has it that the children of the Essenes sat 
at the feet of the masters who interpreted the 
Law and explained its figurative sense. Even 
St. Ambrose, in his commentary on the First 
Epistle to the Corinthians, maintains that "it is 
the tradition of the synagogue that they sit while 
they dispute, the elders in dignity on high chairs, 
those beneath them on low seats, and the last of 
all on mats upon the pavement." 

The assembly in the Royal Porch surely sur- 
passes in the venerable aspect of its members and 
their Rabbinic learning any other gathering on 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 147 

the face of the earth. Many of the men are ad- 
vanced in years; immense beards cover their 
faces; their prominent noses are strikingly offset 
by their large black eyes, deeply shaded by bold 
brows; their demeanor is grave and dignified, 
even patriarchal. 

Though Judas is seated in the place of the 
teacher, ail present evidently pay the greatest 
reverence to a figure now shrunken and stooped 
almost to ghastliness. The folds of the white 
robe dropping from his shoulders indicate nothing 
but an angular skeleton. His head forms a 
splendid dome, the base of which is fringed by a 
few hairs, whiter than fine-drawn silver. His bald 
skull shines in the light with brilliancy ; his tem- 
ples are hollow, his eyes wan and dim, his nose 
pinched, his lower face muffled in a beard flowing 
and venerable like Aaron's. His hands are con- 
cealed in sleeves of striped silk and clasped upon 
his knees. 

This is Hillel, the leader of the school opposed 
to that of Shammai. Forty years he has studied 
the Law, forty years he has taught the Law, and 
nearly forty years has he been the head of the 
college of scribes. Born of an exiled family in 
Babylon, which, despite its poverty, can trace 
its pedigree back to King David, he came with his 
brother Shebna to Jerusalem, in order to satisfy 
his thirst for knowledge in the capital of Jewish 
culture. He worked as a day-laborer, earning a 
tropaikon a day. One half of this meager earn- 
ing, equivalent to half a denarius, had to suffice 



148 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

for the maintenance of his family, the other half 
he paid to the superintendent of the Beth-ha- 
Midarsh, the institution over which Shemaya and 
Abtalion presided. One day, having found no 
work, the superintendent refused him admission. 
But favored by darkness, Hillel climbed up to the 
window that had been opened through the wall, 
where he could hear and see all. The cold and 
ceaseless December snow — -it was in the month of 
Tebeth — soon overpowered him ; when the auro- 
ral column had risem Shemaya said to Abtalion: 
" Dear Brother Abtalion, the hall is at other times 
well lighted by day ; but to-day it is so dark — it 
must be cloudy." Looking up, they discovered 
a human form in the window, and ascending, they 
actually found Hillel buried in the snow. Though 
it was the Sabbath-day, he was extricated, bathed 
arid rubbed with oil and brought near the fire-side, 
for it was remarked : "He is worthy that on his 
account we desecrate the Sabbath-day." 

The character of Hillel's doctrine is perhaps 
best described by contrasting it with that of 
Shammai, his illustrious and bitter opponent. In 
matters of legal casuistry the latter was a proba- 
biliorist, while Hillel would be called a probabilist 
in to-day's terminology. Far reaching as this 
difference between the two great leaders may be, 
it does not touch Hillel's fundamental principles. 
Shammai spent the whole week meditating how 
he should spend the coming Sabbath so as to 
faithfully observe all the details of the law. The 
ceremonial enactments seemed to him more im- 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 149 

portant than the moral precepts. A foreigner 
once appeared before him with the words : " Make 
a proselyte of me, but teach me the entire Law 
while I stand upon one leg." Shammai became 
angry and lifting the rod in his hand, he drove the 
intruder from his presence. The applicant ad- 
dressed himself to Hillel with the same demand 
and the same condition. " Whatsoever you do not 
like yourself," said Hillel, "that abstain from do- 
ing to your neighbor — this is the entire Law, and 
all the rest is comment. Go thou and learn this ! " 
Hillel's mind was, therefore, not merely more 
adapted to the practical necessities of life, but 
was also gifted with a power of analysis and an 
intellectual perspective that would have done 
credit to a pupil of Aristotle. 

Near by Hillel sits his son Simeon, by a 
number of authors identified with the Simeon of 
whom St. Luke speaks : " And behold, there was a 
man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man 
was just and devout, waiting for the consolation 
of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was in him. And 
he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost 
that he should not see death, before he had seen 
the Christ of the Lord." 

There is also Hillel's grandson Gamaliel : we 
can imagine him saying with all the youthful pride 
of a successful Pharisee, in the language of the 
Book of Wisdom : " I shall have estimation 
among the multitude and honor with the elders, 
though I be young. I shall be found of a quick 
conceit in judgment, and shall be admired in the 



150 A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 

sight of great men. When I hold my tongue, they 
shall bide my leisure ; and when I speak, they shall 
give ear unto me. " It will be at his feet that Saul 
shall " make progress in the Jews' religion above 
many of his contemporaries in his own nation, 
being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions 
of his fathers." The same Gamaliel will advise 
the Sanhedrin concerning the Apostles : " Re- 
frain from these men, and let them alone ; for if 
this counsel or this work be of men, it will come 
to naught; but if it be of God, you cannot over- 
throw it, lest perhaps you be found to fight 
against God." 

But above all, there are Judas and Matthiah, the 
present leaders of the Beth-ha-Midrash. Samuel 
is presented to them as a new pupil, and Judas ad- 
dresses him with the words of Jesus the son of 
Sirach : " The wise man will seek out the wisdom 
of all the ancients, and will be occupied in the 
prophets. He will keep the sayings of renowned 
men, and will enter withal into the subtilties 
of parables. He will search out the hidden 
meanings of proverbs, and will be conversant in 
the secrets of parables. He shall serve among 
great men, and appear before the governor. He 
shall pass into strange countries ; for he shall try 
good and evil among men." 

"Surely, Brother," here interrupts Matthiah, 
" thou art rather describing the fate of Samuel's 
father Ananiah, than predicting the course of our 
pupil and son. Ananiah truly hath appeared be- 
fore governors, and passed into strange countries, 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 151 

and tried good and evil, and served among great 
men, after Josiah was put to death by the intrigues 
of Herod, because he preferred the love of the 
law to the service of the Idumean." And then 
addressing Samuel he added : " Even a fool, if 
he hold his peace, shall be counted wise ; and if 
he close his lips, a man of understanding. Show 
us, my son, thy wisdom by the words of thy 
mouth." 

" It ill becometh the young to speak in the as- 
sembly of the elders," replies Samuel. " All my 
wisdom is the wisdom of the foolish, which shows 
itself in many questions — Is it not written : 
Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, 
nor the likeness of anything that is in the heaven 
above or in the earth beneath, nor of those things 
that are in the waters under the earth ? And still, 
I even now see a great golden eagle, fastened 
yonder over the principal entrance to Jehovah's 
Temple." 

A sudden clap of thunder could have produced 
no more striking effect than is produced by Sam- 
uel's words. All the youths who are noted for 
their zeal of the Law, closely gather around Judas 
the son of Saripheus, and Matthiah the son of Mar- 
galothus. The more elderly men and those more 
inclined to leniency, draw close to the tripod of 
Hillel and his sons. 

Judas, transported by the zeal of God's honor, 
begins to rouse the spirit of his audience 
as with so many darts of fire. " God's anger," 
he says, " is visibly shown by Herod's loathsome 



152 A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 

infirmity and the affliction that is even now reign- 
ing in his family. The love of the Law is better 
than the pleasures of life. Death cannot be avoided 
by any one born of woman. Wherefore should 
the sons of Moses sit vainly in the dark through 
a dull and nameless age, and without lot in noble 
deeds ? The strife must be dared, and Jehovah 
will give the desired issue. Great danger allow- 
eth not of cowardice. What can show greater 
virtue and bring more undying glory than the 
love of the Law. But the love of the Law undoes 
what it done against the Law, pulls down what is 
put up against the Law, destroys what is made 
contrary to the Law. Let then every son of 
Abraham and every disciple of Moses bestir him- 
self to do away with the Roman abomination." 

Hundreds of pupils who had hung upon the 
lips of Judas are about to break forth in youthful 
rashness to the Temple gate, each of them eager 
to be the first on the field of destruction. But 
the sound of the last words is still ringing in the 
Temple courts, when the voice of Hillel, feeble 
but high and piercing, arrests the excited multi- 
tude. 

" The way of the fool is right in his own eyes," 
he says, " but he that is wise hearkeneth to coun- 
sels. A fool immediately showeth his anger, but 
he that dissembleth injuries, is wise. Is not God 
about to take Herod out of this life ? why en- 
danger our lives and jeopardize the welfare of our 
nation for the sake of a dead dog ? the fire of 
God's judgment glows within the tyrant's bowels, 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 153 

and the water of vengeance encompasses his feet 
and his belly round about. The air refuses serv- 
ice in his breathing and is rotten within his nos- 
trils, and the earth supplies only corruption for 
the support of his members. A little patient en- 
durance will bring about what a hasty recourse 
to force will prevent for ever." 

A number of Judas's followers prepare a 
dreadful attack on Hillel's adherents, but this 
unnerves even Judas and Matthiah. Their hatred 
of Herod and his gentile practices is great, but 
their love and reverence for the Patriarch Rabbi 
of Jerusalem is greater. The infuriated mob is 
soon pacified by the joined efforts of Matthiah 
and Judas, while most of Hillel's followers leave 
the Royal Porch for the Hall of Polished Stones 
where the Sanhedrin is about to hold its meet- 
ing. 

The special disciples and followers of Hillel 
number eighty. Thirty of these are worthy to 
receive the Divine Spirit in the fulness of Moses ; 
thirty are worthy to stop the sun like Joshua; 
twenty are middling. The greatest of all is Jono- 
than ben Uzziel, the least is Rabban Jochanan 
ben Zaccai. But even Jochanan has not forgot- 
ten a single text of the Scriptures, the Mishna, 
the Gemara, the Halachah,the Haggadah, nothing 
of tradition, of the comparisons, the illustrations 
and of whatever else belongs to Hillel's teaching. 
If this is true of the least, what must we expect of 
the greatest ? When Jonathan ben Uzziel studied 
the Law, every bird of heaven that happened to 



154 A DAY IN" THE TEMPLE. 

fly over the place where he sat, was burnt to 
ashes. Even the angels gathered about him to 
hear his explanations of the Law. 

Well had it been for the presidents of the 
Beth-ha-Midrash, had Hillel lived long enough to 
prevent another disturbance, occasioned by the 
disciples of Judas and Matthiah not a year after 
the period of which we now speak. A false re- 
port of Herod's death had been spread through 
the city and the Temple ; so, in the middle of the 
day, the two Rabbis with their disciples pulled 
down the golden eagle and cut it into pieces with 
axes, while a great many people were in the 
Temple. 

The king's captain, supposing there was ques- 
tion of open rebellion, came into the court with a 
band of soldiers, and fell upon the insurgents un- 
expectedly. No fewer than forty of the young 
men who had the courage to stay behind when 
the rest ran away, together with the authors of 
this bold attempt, Judas and Matthiah who 
thought it an ignominious thing to retire under 
such circumstances, were taken prisoners and led 
to the king. Being questioned about the destruc- 
tion of the eagle, they boldly confessed : " What 
was contrived, we contrived, and what hath been 
performed, we performed it. We will undergo 
death, and all sorts of punishments which thou 
canst inflict upon us, with pleasure, since we are 
conscious that we die for our love to religion." 
Upon this, Herod deprived Matthiah the high 
priest of his office, since under his reign the 



a day w the TEMPLE. 155 

disturbance had taken place, and the Rabbis 
Matthiah and Judas together with the forty- 
youths he burnt alive. 

So soon as Hillel's party leaves the porch, Judas 
and Matthiah begin to reorganize their demoralized 
pupils, and the question of the day is begun. 
Matthiah cannot attend long; for being a member 
of the Sanhedrin, he must be present at the en- 
suing meeting which is of supreme importance 
on account of the matter under consideration. 
Judas and a number of his disciples first recite 
the thirty-nine kinds of labor forbidden on the 
Sabbath day. Then the twenty-first of these works 
that of " making a knot, " is discussed at full 
length. The preceding works have been con- 
sidered on former occasions. 

" Are there not many kinds of knots ? " one of 
the more advanced disciples ventures to ask. 
" And are all knots without distinction forbidden 
on the Sabbath ? " 

"Thy question is too general," replies Judas. 
"Tell us plainly concerning which knot thou 
doubtest as to the guilt on the Sabbath day." 

" Is guilt incurred by reason of a knot which 
can be untied with one hand ? " the disciple con- 
tinues. 

" Guilt is not incurred by reason of a knot that 
can be untied with one hand," replies Judas ; 
" because what is valid for the untying is valid for 
the tying. One hand incurs no guilt in the unty- 
ing. Hence such a knot does not render guilty 
in the tying." 



156 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

" Rabbi," says another disciple, " canst thou 
tell us which knots render one certainly guilty on 
the Sabbath day ? " 

" The knot of camel-drivers and that of sailors," 
answers Judas, " render one surely guilty on the 
Sabbath day ; and as one is guilty by reason of 
tying, so also of untying them." 

" Is it true, Rabbi," inquires a third one, "that 
a woman may on the Sabbath day tie up a slit in 
her shift ? " 

"A woman," replies Judas, "may not only tie 
the slit in her shift, but also the strings of her 
cap, those of her girdle, and the straps of her 
shoes and sandals." 

" Suppose, Rabbi," says another disciple, " the 
skins of oil and wine open on the Sabbath day ; 
what is one permitted to do ? " 

"An important question that, an important 
question," replies Judas. " We may tie on the 
Sabbath day the straps of wine and oil skins, as 
well as those of a pot with meat." 

"Is any one free who ties on the Sabbath day a 
knot of the girdle ? " is the anxious question of 
another disciple. 

" He who ties a knot of the girdle on the Sab- 
bath day, is free," replies Judas. " He who ties a 
pail over the well with the girdle on the Sabbath 
day, is free. He who ties a pail over the well 
with a rope on the Sabbath day, is guilty." 

In a similar manner, all the other prohibited 
works are gone through and commented upon. 
He who extinguishes a light, because he is afraid 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 157 

of heathen, robbers, or the evil spirit, or for the 
sake of one sick, that he may sleep, is free. But 
if he does it to save the oil, the wick or the lamp, 
he is guilty. He who carries so much food as is 
equal in weight to a dry fig, or so much wine as 
is enough to mix in a goblet, or milk enough for 
one swallow, honey enough to put upon a wound, 
oil enough to anoint a small member, water 
enough to moisten one eye-salve, paper enough 
to write a custom-house notice upon, parchment 
enough to write the shortest portion of the Teph- 
illin, ink enough to write two letters, reed enough 
to make a pen of, garments that do not properly 
belong to clothing, such as a coat of mail, a hel- 
met or a sword, isguilty in all these instances. The 
question whether a cripple may go out with his 
wooden leg on the Sabbath, cannot be clearly 
solved. Some Rabbis are of the one, others 
of the opposite opinion. 

Without following the interesting discussion 
concerning the burden-bearing on a Sabbath day, 
in case a fire should break out, we must accom- 
pany Matthiah, Zachary and Samuel to the Hall 
of Polished Stones. To-day, the Sanhedrin will 
pronounce judgment on the legal pedigree of a 
number of priests' sons, and on their fitness for 
the Temple service. Samuel expresses his sur- 
prise at the heated manner in which Hillel re- 
pressed the movement of the zealots. He infers 
that in his youthful days, Hillel must have been 
of an extremely passionate nature. Though Mat- 
thiah has, in the present case, been the apparent 



158 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

sufferer, he is fair enough to correct Samuel's in- 
ference. He even relates an anecdote which 
shows Hillel's character to be of quite the con- 
trary nature. 

A man in a public place at Jerusalem offered 
four hundred sus to him that should move Hillel 
to real anger. " I'll take you up," cried another. 
As it was Friday afternoon, Hillel was just en- 
gaged in washing and combing for the morrow. 
Without addressing him by his proper title, his 
tempter at the doorscreamed out, " Is Hillel here? " 

Throwing his mantle about him, the latter 
hastened to the door and said : " My son, what 
can I do for you ? " 

" I have a question for you," said the tempter. 

" Let us hear it, my son," replies Hillel. 

" Why have the Babylonians such ugly, ball- 
shaped heads ? " asks the former. 

" An important question this, my son," rejoins 
Hillel ; " this comes from the lack of sensible 
midwives." 

The stranger turned his back, and left for an 
hour. Coming back, he cries out as before : " Is 
Hillel here, is Hillel here ? " 

Wrapped in his mantle, the latter appears again 
at the door with the good-natured words : " My 
son, what can I do for you ? " 

" Why," asks the former, " have the Thermu- 
dians such small almond-shaped eyes ? " 

" An important question this, my son," says 
Hillel. " Because they inhabit broad sandy 
steppes." 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 159 

The tempter renews his noise at the door after 
another hour, and Hillel comes a third time to the 
door, clad in his mantle. 

" What is it, my son ? " he asks with a smile. 

"Why," asks the fellow, "have the Africans 
such broad flat feet ? " 

"An important question this, my son," replies 
Hillel ; " it is because the Africans live in marshy 
countries." 

The stranger rejoins : " I have many more 
questions, but I fear to provoke you." 

Hillel drawing his mantle close about him, sits 
down by the tempter's side, and asks him to con- 
tinue his questions. 

" So you are that Hillel whom people call the 
prince of Israel ? " 

" Yes, my son," is the Rabbi's modest reply. 

" Well, if you are, I hope there are very few 
like you." 

" Why, my son," asks Hillel. 

" Because I have lost four hundred sus on your 
account." 

"Not so hasty, my son," replies Hillel; "it is 
better that you lose four hundred and again four 
hundred sus, than that Hillel lose his patience." 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE SANHEBRIN. 

From May till October rain is unknown in 
Palestine ; the sun shines with unclouded bright- 
ness day after day. Not even the coolness of the 



160 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

night finds enough of moisture in the hot summer 
air to chill into dew-drops. The heat becomes 
intense, the ground is hard, and vegetation would 
perish but for the moist west winds that blow 
every night from the sea. In spite of the growing 
heat, for the sun is now approaching the highest 
point in the heavens, there is a remarkable stir in 
and near the Hall of Polished Stones. Great 
numbers enter by the Wood Gate so as to ap- 
proach the Gazith without passing through the 
Court of Women or the Court of Israel. 

The arrival of the high priest in the assembly 
causes a sudden lull in the noisy conversation, 
and the underhand canvassing that has been go- 
ing on for the last hour. The members of the 
Sanhedrin sit in a form like the half of a threshing 
floor. Matthiah the high priest and his assistant, 
the Sagan Joseph ben Ellem, walk up to the 
farthest end of the semicircular row of seats, and 
there Matthiah occupies the place of the president 
or Nasi, while Joseph ben Ellem is seated at his 
right, being the vice-president or Ab-beth-din for 
the time. The total number of the members, in- 
cluding the president and the vice-president, is 
seventy-one. At the two ends of the semicircle, 
facing the assembled Sanhedrin, are seated the 
two clerks of the court, one at the right extrem- 
ity, and the other at the left. It is their duty to 
record the votes of the fathers. There also, in 
front of the court, sit three rows of disciples of 
the learned men, each of whom has his own 
special seat assigned to him, 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 161 

Whenever a disciple is called to fill a vacant 
office of judge, one of those in the foremost row 
is chosen. His place is supplied by one from the 
second row, and a member from the third line is 
advanced to the second. Some one from the con- 
gregation is then chosen to fill the vacancy thus 
created in the third row. The newly chosen 
member does not, however, step directly into the 
place occupied by the one last promoted from 
the third row, but he is seated according to his 
condition. That all the members of the Sanhe- 
drin are Jews of pure blood, is a matter of course. 
But the criminal judge above all must prove his 
legal extraction by the most trustworthy evidence. 
For the received maxim has it : " Any one is qual- 
ified to act as judge in civil causes. But none are 
competent to deal with criminal cases except 
priests, Levites and Israelites whose daughters it 
is lawful for priests to marry." 

But it must not be imagined that by means of 
these provisions the Sanhedrin has been kept en- 
tirely free from corruption. Even the people's 
voice loudly attests the contrary. " What a 
scourge is the family of Boethus," they say; " may 
their lances perish ! " " What a scourge is the 
family of Annas," will soon be added. " May 
their viper's hissing perish ! " And another few 
years later it will be said : " What a scourge is the 
family of Ismael ben Phabi ; may their fists 
perish ! They themselves are high priests, their 
sons are treasurers, their sons-in-law are captains, 
their servants strike the people with rods." 
11 



162 A DAY W THE TEMPLE, 

According to the same testimony, the Temple 
court sent forth a loud cry on four different oc- 
casions. First it exclaimed : u Depart from hence, 
descendants of Heli; you sully the Temple of the 
Eternal." Then : " Depart from hence, Issachar 
of Kefar Barkai, who dost not respect any one 
but thyself, and profanest what is consecrated unto 
heaven." Thirdly : " Open wide, ye gates of the 
sanctuary ! give access to Ismael ben Phabi, the 
disciple of the whimsical, that he may officiate in 
his functions." The fourth cry of the Temple 
sounded : " Expand, ye gates, and admit Ananias 
the son of Nebedaios, the disciple of the glutton, 
that he may sate himself with sacrificial meat." 

In that august assembly, as it sits before 
us, we recognize three constituent elements, the 
college of priests, the college of scribes and the 
college of elders. Among the first class is, be- 
sides the high priest Matthiah and his assistant 
the Sagan Joseph ben Ellen, Abiathar the chief 
of Abijah's course. There, too, sits Matthiah the 
prefect of lots, and Joazar son of Simon Boethus, 
and Eleazar another son of Simon, and Annas 
who is so well known to us from the Gos- 
pels. Among his contemporaries, the latter 
passed as the most happy of men, though he 
earned also the name of a cruel and proud pontiff. 

Among the scribes we recognize the famous 
Hillel and several of his pupils, such as Onkelos, 
Jonathan ben Uzziel, and Hillel's son Simeon. 
Joseph of Arimathea among the ancients will 
make himself renowned in the history of Jesus. 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 163 

But it is especially among the disciples that we 
find a great number of members who will enter 
into close relation, friendly or hostile, with Jesus. 
Not to mention Joseph Caiphas, the principal 
agent in the judicial murder of Jesus, not to speak 
of the five sons of Annas and Simon Cantheras, 
we see there Gamaliel, Samuel Hakkaton, Chan- 
anias ben Chiskia, Jochanan ben Zaccai, the youth- 
ful Nicodemus and Ismael ben Phabi. 

It must not astonish us to find so many mem- 
bers of the same family holding rank in this body 
of Jewish officials. For practically, the high 
priesthood at this period is vested in a few priv- 
ileged families. Within the years 37 B, C. to 68 
A. D. three of the high priests belonged to the 
family of Phabi, six to that of Boethus, eight to 
that of Annas, and three to the family of Kamith. 
Leaving Ananel a Babylonian of humble origin, 
Aristobulus the last of the Asmonseans, and 
Phannias the high priest of the revolution period, 
out of account, there remain only five who can- 
not be proved to have belonged to one or another 
of those families, though they may have done so. 

It must also be kept in mind that all the princi- 
pal priestly families belong to the Sadducees, 
while most of the scribes and elders are Pharisees. 
The former acknowledge only the written Thorah 
as binding, and reject the entire traditionary in- 
terpretation and further development of the law 
by the scribes. For " only what is written, is to 
be esteemed as legal. What has come down by 
the tradition of the fathers needs not be observed.*' 



164 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

The specific legal differences between the two 
parties are of minor interest. In penal legislation 
the Sadducees are more severe than the Pharisees. 
The former always strictly adhere to the letter of 
the law, while the latter mitigate its severity by 
interpretation. The same is the case in questions 
of ritual. 

The dogmatic tenets of the Sadducees are of 
greater consequence. They do not believe in the 
resurrection of the body, retribution in a future 
life, and any personal continuity of the individual 
after death. The existence of angels and spirits 
they entirely deny, and according to them " good 
and evil are at the choice of man, who can do the 
one or the other at his discretion." 

But though the Sadducean high priests are at 
the head of the Sanhedrin, the decisive influence 
in public affairs is in the hands of the Pharisees. 
The latter have the bulk of the nation on their 
side, they exercise the greatest influence on the 
congregations, so that all the acts of public wor- 
ship, prayers and sacrifices are performed accord- 
ing to their injunctions. Even the Sadducees, in 
their public acts, adhere to the regulations of the 
Pharisees, because otherwise the multitude would 
not tolerate them. 

These different parties constituting the San- 
hedrin, it cannot surprise us that precisely those 
questions are decided before it, which the scribes 
believe to belong to that body. A tribe charged 
with idolatry, a false prophet, or a high priest are 
to be tried only before the Court of the Seventy- 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 165 

one. A voluntary war is to be commenced only 
after the decision of the Seventy-one has been 
given in regard to it. There is to be no enlarge- 
ment of the city or of the Temple courts, till 
after the Court of the Seventy-one has decided 
the matter. Superior courts for the tribes are to 
be instituted only when sanctioned by the San- 
hedrin. A town that has been seduced into idol- 
atry is to be dealt with only by the Court of the 
Seventy-one. 

Accordingly the high priest may be tried by 
the Sanhedrin, though the king is as little amen- 
able to its authority as he is at liberty to become 
one of its members. The New Testament gives 
us several particular instances of trials before the 
Sanhedrin. Here Jesus appears on the charge of 
blasphemy, Sts. Peter and John on the charges of 
being false prophets and deceivers of the people ; 
St. Stephen is accused before this tribunal of be- 
ing a blasphemer, and St. Paul of transgressing 
the Mosaic law. 

To-day's business involves no criminal matter; 
it is rather sacred and inquisitive in its nature. A 
number of candidates have presented themselves 
for the priesthood, and their genealogies as well 
as their other qualifications must first be approved 
of by the Court of the Seventy-one. The high 
priest opens the meeting with a few words con- 
cerning the special business of the day. 

" Our forefathers," he says, " made provision 
that the priestly families should continue unmixed 
and pure. For he who is a member of the priest- 



166 A DAY IiV THE TEMPLE. 

hood must propagate of a wife of our nation, 
without having any regard to money or dignities. 
He must make scrutiny, and take his wife's 
genealogy from the ancient tables, and procure 
many witnesses to it. This is our law and prac- 
tice not only in Judea, but wheresoever there lives 
anybody of our nation. For in Egypt, and at 
Babylon, and whithersoever our priests are scat- 
tered, exact catalogues of their marriages are 
kept. To Jerusalem they send the ancient names 
of their parents in writing, as well as those of 
their remoter ancestors, and signify also who are 
the witnesses. And if any war falls out, such as 
have fallen out a great many times, as when An- 
tiochus Epiphanes made an invasion upon our 
country, or when Pompey the Great did so, those 
priests that survive him, compose new tables of 
genealogy out of the old records, and examine 
the circumstances of the women that remain. 
Those that have been captives are not admitted 
to the priests' marriage, because they may have 
had intercourse with Gentiles. For the space of 
two thousand years we possess the names of our 
high priests from father to son, set down in our 
records, and if any of these have been trangress- 
ors of the rules, they have been prohibited to 
present themselves at the altar, and to be partak- 
ers of any of our purifications. To-day we are 
called upon to do according to the manner of our 
ancestors. Let the records of genealogy be in- 
spected, and a worthy priesthood be prepared 
unto Jehovah." 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 167 

"The law of God is clear and plain to every- 
one : Whoever of thy seed throughout their 
families, hath a blemish, he shall not offer bread to 
his God, neither shall he approach to minister 
to him. If he be blind, if he be lame, if he have 
a little or a great or a crooked nose, if his foot 
or his hand be broken, if he be crook-backed or 
blear-eyed, or have a pearl in his eye, or a con- 
tinual scab, or a dry scurf in his body, or a rupture. 
Whoever of the seed of Aaron the priest hath a 
blemish, he shall not approach to offer sacri- 
fices to the Lord, nor bread to his God ; he shall 
eat nevertheless of the loaves, that are offered in 
the sanctuary, yet so that he enter not within the 
veil, nor approach to the altar, because he hath a 
blemish, and he must not defile my sanctuary. I 
am the Lord who sanctify them." 

Matthiah is evidently fatigued by his speech. 
Never before has he delivered so long an oration 
in public. Well satisfied with the performance 
of his arduous duty, he commands the secretaries 
to proceed with the list of candidates' names. 
So many as eighteen young men are about to un- 
dergo the double trial of their fitness for the 
sacerdotal office, the scrutiny into their genealogy 
and into their bodily qualifications for the minis- 
try of the altar. Regarding seventeen of them 
there is no difficulty as to the first point to be 
established. Their fathers' names are inscribed 
in the archives of Jeshana at Zipporim, so that no 
further inquiry is needed, or their mothers are the 
daughters of priests who have ministered at the 



168 A DAY IK THE TEMPLE. 

altar, or of Levites who have sung in the choir, or 
of members of the Sanhedrin. For it is a general 
rule that those whose ancestors have been public 
officials or almoners, are at liberty to marry one 
belonging to the priesthood without further in- 
quiry. Samuel's case is not so clear ; hence his 
genealogical register will be investigated, after it 
has been established whether the other seventeen 
are free from bodily blemish. 

Had the Sadducees alone been in the Sanhedrin, 
this investigation would have been extremely sim- 
ple. A look at the candidate's eye, nose, hand, 
foot and back, together with a general investiga- 
tion into his health, would have sufficed to settle 
the question beyond all reasonable doubt. But as 
things now stand, the minute regulations of the 
scribes must be followed. There are more than one 
hundred and forty physical defects which disqualify 
the candidate permanently for the priestly office, 
and twenty-two which do so temporarily. If any 
one has a pointed skull, or is radish-headed, or 
has no occiput, or has a humpback with a bone in 
the hump, or is so bald as not to have any hair 
between his ears, or if he has no eyelashes or only 
one eyebrow, or if his eyebrows hang down over 
his eyelashes, or if he has double eyelashes, or has 
not enough of an elevation between his eyes to 
prevent their being blackened at the same time, if 
his eyes are higher or lower, or either of them is 
higher or lower than their ordinary place, or if he 
is squint-eyed, or cannot bear the light in his 
eyes, or if his eyes are of a different color, or if 



A PAT IN* THE TEMPLE. 169 

they are constantly running, or if the eyelashes 
have fallen off, or if he is ox-eyed, or goose-eyed, 
or if his body bears no proportion to his members, 
or if his nose is too long, or too small, or if his 
eyes are small, or spongelike, if his upper lip is 
larger than his lower lip, or vice versa, if he has no 
teeth, if his belly protrudes, or his navel stands 
out, if he be epileptic, or melancholy, or bow- 
legged, or knock-kneed, or if he be goose-footed, 
or left-handed, or have six fingers, or six toes, or 
is black, or red, or white, or deaf, or foolish, or a 
giant, or a dwarf, in all these cases he cannot min- 
ister at the altar. Other impediments we cannot 
here state, either because they refer to parts of 
the body which we may not mention, or because 
they are already comprised in the general irregu- 
larities thus far stated. The nose, e. g. t must be 
of the length of the small finger; the degree of 
baldness too is accurately determined and a super-, 
fluous member always must be examined whether 
it is merely a fleshy excrescence or has a bone 
in it. 

Besides these irregularities which prevent 
priests' sons forever from offering sacrifices or 
entering into the Holy Place, there are twenty- 
two temporary impediments. If any one has, 
e. g. y married a slave or a captive, or one who gets 
her living by cheating trades, or by keeping inns, 
or a divorced woman, he cannot ascend the altar 
till he has bound himself by vow not to profit by 
such a marriage. With all these restrictions, it is 
easily understood why five of the seventeen can- 



170 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

didates are declared unfit for the ministry of the 
altar. The emoluments of the priesthood they 
will indeed share — ■ for they belong to the sacer- 
dotal clan — but its highest and proper duties they 
cannot ever hope to fulfill. Most of their life will 
be spent in the Wood Chamber situated in the 
Court of Women. There they will pick out the 
worm-eaten pieces of wood from among those 
that are sound and fit for the service of the altar 
of burnt-offering. 

Finally, Samuel is called upon to undergo the 
twofold scrutiny. The secretary reads his name 
and the name of his father Ananiah the son of 
josiah, who was slain by Herod together with 
forty-four other members of the Sanhedrin, the 
very year in which the king conquered the Holy 
City. They had been the most faithful adherents 
of Antigonus* party, and their fidelity was re- 
venged even on their families^ their wives and 
children. Had not Ananiah been accidentally 
out of the city at that time, he too would have 
been slain without mercy. It was only Zachary's 
generosity that prevented Ananiah's death and 
helped him in his flight to Babylon. During the 
reading of these brief items, the scribes and 
elders in the Sanhedrin show a considerable 
amount of anger and passion, while the Sadducean 
and Herodian members of the body are over- 
awed by sentiments of fear and anxiety. 

Matthiah the high priest even proposes to omit 
the investigation of Samuel's case fraught as it is 
with danger not only for himself but also for the 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. ill 

august Council of the nation. Or is it not always 
expedient to sacrifice the welfare of the individ- 
ual for that of the body ? But the scribes and 
the Pharisees cry out against such a mode of pro- 
ceeding, and unanimously insist on having Sam- 
uel's case examined. Abiathar suggests that the 
scrutiny might be undertaken at any rate, and if 
Samuel proves all necessary conditions satisfac- 
torily, it must be left to his own discretion whether 
he will exercise the priestly functions. Herod 
may, in the meantime, be informed of all that has 
been done by the Seventy-one. 

Though Abiathar does not speak through real 
sympathy for Samuel, but only to remove his 
youthful rival forever from the priestly functions 
and from the dignity of the Council, his advice 
pleases every one. For the scribes and Pharisees 
believe that they will be able to influence Herod 
in favor of Samuel, so that the latter will be al- 
lowed to perform the duties of his calling in safety. 
Regarding Samuel's genealogy down to his father 
there is no difficulty, his grandfather Josiah hav- 
ing ministered at the altar and having been a 
member of the Sanhedrin. Hence the only 
question to be discussed regards his mother's 
genealogy. 

For " when a priest wants to marry the daugh- 
ter of a priest, he must go back and find evidence 
with regard to four generations of mothers, and 
therefore, strictly speaking, with regard to eight 
mothers. These are, her own mother and her 
mother's mother ; the mother of her maternal 



172 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

grandfather and her mother again ; the mother of 
her father and her mother ; the mother of her 
paternal grandfather and her mother again. If 
on the other hand, the woman he wants to marry, 
be simply a daughter of Levi or of Israel, he must 
go back a step farther." 

Ananiah had married at Babylon, and had 
not been able to enter the genealogy of his wife 
in the registers at Jerusalm on account of 
Herod's persecution. Hence Samuel must now 
prove that his mother is of the race of Israel. He 
produces the document duly signed and formally 
credited by the Resh Gelutha of Babylon. The 
seals and signatures are examined by the leading 
members of the Sanhedrin, and the document is 
passed over to the secretary to be read aloud. 

A great number of the members hardly pay at- 
tention to the reader ; for them it is only a repe- 
tition of the legal formulas which they hear al- 
most daily. Then, there is a sudden halt in the 
reading; the secretary nervously looks up and 
down the page, then reads again from the begin- 
ning, till he comes to the fatal place where the 
name of Ismeria, Samuel's mother, should be 
mentioned. But he has not been deceived. A 
blank space is all he can see. There may have 
been letters, in all probability there have been. 
But it is beyond the power of anyone to tell pre- 
cisely what word occupied the blank space. 

Samuel and Zachary look anxiously at the 
reader ; the high priest demands an explanation. 
In answer the document is presented, and atten- 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 173 

tion is drawn to the vacancy. There is a stir in 
the august assembly. Never before has a case of 
this kind occurred in the Hall of Polished Stones. 
Then Matthiah calls the assembly to order, and 
asks what should be done in this case. 

Abiathar and the men of his party are of opin- 
ion that Samuel has attempted to deceive the 
Council and gain admission to the sacerdotal 
ranks by means of mutilated genealogical records. 
But this conjecture is so improbable that the 
whole college of scribes and elders protest against 
it unanimously. 

Hillel rises and proposes that the question of 
forgery be deferred to another day. " To-day," 
he says, " it is our object to examine the genea- 
logical records of the candidates for the priest- 
hood. Our business is well-nigh concluded, ex- 
cepting the case of Samuel. Since he has failed 
to prove the pure Jewish descent of his mother by 
means of written documents, he must prove the 
same by oral testimony. As for me, I have 
known not only Samuel's mother but also her an- 
cestors for four generations. All of them were 
sons and daughters of Abraham, all were faithful 
followers of the law of Moses, all distinguished for 
their piety and reverence for Jehovah." 

The assembly is highly impressed by Hillel's 
words, but the testimony of one witness, even of 
Hillel, is not valid in Jewish jurisprudence. Be- 
sides Hillel no one is old enough to testify from 
his personal knowledge of Samuel's ancestral line. 
There is a general call upon any one willing to 



174 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

render a testimony similar to Hillel's. Samuel's 
case is lost ; no one rises, and the high priest, to 
Abiathar's delight, is about to call for the votes of 
the Seventy-one. Two young priests leave the 
hall and return immediately with a black gar- 
ment. For if a candidate fails to prove his gene- 
ology, he is dressed in black and dismissed from 
the assembly, being at the same time for ever ex- 
cluded from the ranks of the priesthood. If the 
candidate proves his geneology, but is excluded 
for any other irregularity, there is hope, at least, 
for his descendants to. be admitted to the service 
of the altar. Before the votes are taken, Gamaliel 
rises among the scribes' disciples, and asks leave 
to suggest another means of proof. " If Samuel 
proves that his mother's mother or sister or 
brother occupies, or has occupied, a position 
which requires a legal purity of descent, his 
mother's genealogy too is sufficiently established." 

Zachary has up to this time kept absolute silence. 
He now advances, pale as death, and the muscles 
of his face slightly quiver with excitement. Many 
thoughts and suspicions have passed through his 
mind, while the discussion has gone on. He could 
have pointed out the man who had tampered with 
the document, though Samuel has not yet told 
him that it has been in Obed's hands. 

" Ananiah," he says, " married Ismeria the 
younger sister of my wife Elizabeth. Since I have 
been admitted to the service of the altar, having 
proved to the satisfaction of this assembly my 



A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 175 

wife's Israelitish origin, Samuel too must be re- 
ceived." 

" We all know Elizabeth and Zachary," ans- 
wers Abiathar. " In Elizabeth has been verified 
what the prophet Osee wrote of Ephraim : ' Give 
them, O Lord ! What wilt thou give them ? Give 
them a womb without children, and dry breasts. , 
For the wickedness of their devices I v/ill cast them 
forth out of my house, I will love them no more.' 
The husband is deprived of the creator's blessing, 
as he has failed to comply with the creator's pre- 
cept. Our doctors tell us that the childless, the 
blind and the poor must be regarded as dead, like 
the lepers. What then availeth the testimony of 
the dead among the living, of the accursed of 
God in Jehovah's own council ? " 

Matthiah the prefect of lots, noticing Zachary's 
intense suffering, would have gladly defended the 
honor and good name of his friend. But for the 
present, Samuel's interest demands a different 
course of action. 

" Whatever value we may set on Zachary's testi- 
mony," he says, " it is well known to most of us 
that Elizabeth and Ismeria are sisters, and that 
Elizabeth's genealogical record is above suspicion. 
In our votes we should, therefore, consider the 
truth of the fact rather than the channel through 
which its knowledge has come to us." 

After Hillel has pointed out to the assembly 
that even a woman's testimony is valid, in case it 
is nothing else than an unmistakable evidence of a 
fact, the high priest calls for the votes of the mem- 



176 A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 

bers. Sanhedrist after Sanhedrist rises, beginning 
from the most dignified, and gives his vote in 
clear and precise terms, the secretaries keeping 
faithful record of the single votes. 

All the scribes and ancients vote in favor of 
Samuel, while nearly all the priests' votes are 
against him. Abiathar has not even selfcontrol 
enough to hide his annoyance and his fear. No 
sooner has he heard the result of the proceeding 
than he leaves the Hall of Polished Stones, to 
avoid the looks of the sympathetic and the ques- 
tions of the curious. With eager steps he strides 
across the Court of Priests to find Obed in the 
Beth-Moked and profit by his counsel. 

No one doubts as to the result of the second ex- 
amination regarding Samuel's bodily qualifica- 
tions. He is not only well proportioned, but sur- 
passes in beauty of form all those who have been 
admitted to the priestly service for many years 
past. 

So soon as Samuel's case is decided Zachary 
addresses him in the words of Jesus the son of 
Sirach : " He exalted Aaron his brother, and 
like to himself of the tribe of Levi ; he made an 
everlasting covenant with him, and gave him the 
priesthood of the nation, and made him blessed 
in glory." 

Samuel on recovering from his state of bewil- 
derment and anxiety, answers in the words of the 
same inspired writer : " And he girded him 
about with a glorious girdle, and clothed him with 



A DAT IK THE TEMPLE. 177 

a robe of glory, and crowned him with majestic 
attire." 

Then, presenting the first two articles of the 
priestly dress to Samuel, Zachary still continues : 
" He put upon him a garment to the feet, and 
breeches, and an ephod, and he compassed him 
with many little bells of gold all round about." 

At this moment Matthiah ends his undertone 
conversation with a venerable looking scribe, and 
approaches Samuel and Zachary. Handing the 
sacerdotal girdle to the happy youth, he continues 
in Zachary's strain : " He gave him a holy robe of 
gold, and blue, and purple, a woven work of a 
wise man, endued with judgment and truth : of 
twisted scarlet the work of an artist, with precious 
stones cut and set in gold, and graven by the work 
of a lapidary for a memorial, according to the 
number of the tribes of Israel." 

Finally, Zachary presents the priestly cap with 
the words : " And a crown of gold upon his mitre 
wherein was engraved Holiness, an ornament of 
honor : a work of power and lovely to the eyes for 
its beauty." 

All the candidates who have stood the double 
test are dressed like Samuel and their names are 
properly inscribed in the priestly records. " He 
that overcometh the same shall be clothed in 
white raiment ; and I will not blot out his name 
out of the book of life." * 

* Apoc. III. 5. 

12 



278 A DAY IN' TEE TEMPLE. 

CHAPTER VII. 

ABOUT THE SIXTH HOUR. 

The Hebrews, like the Greeks and Romans in 
their earlier history, ate sitting. A carpet was 
spread on which the meal was served. At a later 
period, however, particularly when Palestine came 
under the influence of Roman manners, the Jews 
reclined on cushions or couches. The custom of 
giving preference in point of seat or position to 
guests of high consideration appears to have been 
of ancient date. In the time of Jesus Christ the 
Pharisees, always eager for distinction, coveted 
the place of honor at meals and feasts. Women 
were not admitted to eat with men, but had their 
meals supplied in their private apartment. In 
Babylon and Persia, however, females mingled 
with males on festive occasions. In general, the 
manner of eating was similar to what it is in the 
East at the present day. Special care was taken 
of favored persons. Neither knives, forks nor 
spoons wefe employed for eating. The food was 
conveyed from the dish to the mouth by the right 
hand. The parties sat, with their legs bent under 
them, round a dish placed in the centre, and either 
took the flesh meat with their fingers from the 
dish, or dipped bits of their bread into the savory 
mess, and conveyed them to their mouths. This 
practice explains the language of our Lord : " He 
it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have 
dipped it." This presenting of food to a person 
is still customary, and was designed originally as 



A DAY IK THE TEMPLE. 179 

a mark of distinction, the choice morsels being 
selected by the head of the family for the pur- 
pose. Drink was handed to each one of the 
guests in cups or goblets, and at a very ancient 
period, in a separate cup to each person. Hence 
the word cup is used as equivalent to what we 
term a man's lot or destiny. We find this use of 
the word even in ourLord's prayer in Gethsemane : 
" Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from 
me ; nevertheless not my will, but thine be done." 
Not only the inhabitants of the East, but the 
Greeks and Romans also, were in the habit of 
taking a slight dinner about ten or eleven o'clock 
of our time, which consisted chiefly of fruits, 
milk, cheese and similar kinds of nourishment. 
Their principal meal was about six or seven in the 
evening ; their feasts were always appointed for 
supper-time. For the burning heat of noon in the 
eastern climate diminishes the appetite for food 
and suppresses the disposition to cheerfulness. 
The hands were washed before meals, as was ren- 
dered necessary by the method of eating. The 
gospels allude to this when they say : " Then 
there came to Jesus from Jerusalem Pharisees and 
scribes, saying : Why do thy disciples transgress 
the tradition of the elders ? for they wash not 
their hands, when they eat bread." Prayers also 
were offered before and after meals, and the Tal- 
mud has preserved us their short formula : 
" Blessed be thou, O Lord, our God, the king of 
the world, who hast produced this food — or this 
drink — from the earth — or the vine." 



180 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

When Matthiah and Zachary and Samuel en- 
tered the dining room of the Beth-Moked, nearly 
all the officiating priests of Abijah's course had 
finished their morning repast. The special and 
exceptional provision made for the support of the 
priesthood, was in accordance with their divine 
calling. Its principle is expressed by the words : 
" I am thy part and thine inheritance among the 
children of Israel," and its joyousness, when 
realized in its full meaning and application, finds 
vent in the words of the royal Psalmist : " Jehovah 
is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup ; 
thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen to 
me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heri- 
tage." 

Obed had thought it advisable to keep out of 
Samuel's sight; but from what the young priest 
tells Matthiah and Zachary about the actions and 
words of his tempter, they have not the slightest 
doubt as to his identity. 

" Obed's description of our scanty resources," 
says Matthiah, " is a positive misrepresentation of 
the facts. Though we have no direct means of 
enriching ourselves in Jehovah's service, we never 
are in want of the necessities of life. There are 
as many as twenty-four sources from which we 
derive our support." 

" And are all of these available to any member 
of the priesthood ? " inquires Samuel. " It ap- 
pears to me that those should receive most who 
labor most." 

" The distribution of our resources does not de- 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 181 

pend on the'amount of a priest's actual work," ex- 
plains Matthiah, " but on his being in a place and 
condition to worthily partake of the holy. Ten 
of the priestly resources are available only in the 
Temple itself, four in Jerusalem, and the remain- 
ing ten throughout the Holy Land." 

" Since thou hast begun thy explanation of this 
matter/' interposes Zachary, "thou must continue 
it; I had great difficulty in understanding the 
distribution of our revenues as it now prevails, 
principally because my instructors imparted their 
lessons piecemeal." 

"Know then, Samuel," continues Matthia^ 
*' that in the Temple itself must be consumed the 
priests' part of the sin-offering ; that of the tres- 
pass-offering for known and for doubtful tres- 
passes ; public peace-offerings ; the leper's log of 
oil ; the two Pentecostal loaves ; the showbread ; 
what is left of the meat-offering, and the omer at 
the Passover." 

" Must then every priest in the Holy City take 
his meals in the Temple, if he desires to eat of 
the sacrificial revenues ? " inquired Samuel. 

" I have already mentioned, Samuel," replies 
Matthiah with some warmth, "that four of the sac- 
rificial resources are available in any part of the 
Holy City. They are the firstlings of beasts, the 
Biccurim or the first natural products of the soil, the 
portion from the thankofifering and from the Naz- 
arite's goat, and finally the skins of the sacrifices. 
It is superfluous to add that these latter are com- 
monly utilized for other than culinary purposes." 



182 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

" Are all the priests who do not reside in the 
Holy City equally well provided for? " asks Sam- 
uel. 

" Any priest throughout the Holy Land," eager- 
ly continues Matthiah, " may profit by five sources 
of revenue : the second tithe, the heave -offering of 
the dough, the first of the fleece and the priests' 
due of meat may be given to any priest. The 
priests of the course actually on duty have five 
more means of support : the redemption money 
for a first-born son, that for an ass, the 'sanctified 
field of possession,' what has been ' devoted,' and 
restitution due to a stranger or proselyte made 
after the owner's death, are paid to the priests of 
the course ministeriug in the Temple." 

" Is then no distinction made between priest 
and priest in the distribution?" again inquires 
Samuel. 

" Two most important distinctions are observed 
in distributing the sacrificial revenues," continues 
Matthiah. " First, an unlettered priest may re- 
ceive only the following dues : things ' devoted,' 
the first-born of cattle, the redemption of a son, 
that of an ass, the priests' due, the first of the 
wool, the ' oil of burning,' the ten things which must 
be used in the Temple, and the Biccurim ; all the 
other revenues are not available to the unlettered. 
Secondly, the high priest has the right to take 
what portion of the offerings he chooses, and one 
half of the showbread every Sabbath." 

While Matthiah thus explains to Samuel, the 
law regulating the distribution of the priestly 



A DA? IN THE TEMPLE. 183 

revenues the little company has taken the simple 
refreshments served in the Beth-Moked. We 
have seen that no wine or other intoxicating drink 
could be had in the Temple. Besides the por- 
tions of the sacrifices due to the priests, there are 
almonds, grapes, figs and pomegranates. Zach- 
ary has paid little attention to all this variety of 
food ; he is so absorbed in thought that Matthiah's 
and Samuel's rising escapes his notice. 

" Hast thou not obtained thy heart's desire, 
Zachary?" Matthiah addresses the venerable old 
man. " What anxiety can thus possess thy 
troubled soul?" 

" Gladly would I say with Israel our father : 
Now let me die ; I see my house revived and my 
family perpetuated in the Temple service. But 
I have not told thee all, Matthiah. Samuel has 
torn the royal contract which was to unite him to 
Herod's niece in marriage. " 

"Did Obed present the royal document ?" in- 
quires Matthiah with some uneasiness. 

" Even so, Brother," replies Zachary ; " and what 
is more, the document was signed in my own 
handwriting, as Samuel testifies.' ' 

" It is hard to foresee the king's line of action, 
especially since his fearful disease has taken hold 
of him," says Matthiah. " In the course of time 
I shall be able to conciliate him, whatever his 
present state of mind may be. Meanwhile we 
must take the safest course, and keep Samuel con- 
cealed, lest he be harmed by Herod in a fit of 
anger." 



184 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

With these words, surely not consoling for 
Zachary * nor re-assuring for Samuel, Matthiah 
leaves the Beth-Moked with hurried steps, follow- 
ed by his two companions. 

So soon as Abiathar entered the Beth-Moked 
whither we saw him hasten after Samuel's election 
he passed to the department in which the furna- 
ces were kept : here Obed waited for his coming 
according to agreement. The latter, leisurely 
seated on a piece of carpet, has in his mind again 
and again gone over the pain and the 
disappointment which Zachary and Samuel 
would feel at the illegality of the gene- 
alogical record, and at the consequent ex- 
clusion of Samuel from the priestly ranks. If 
anything could have augmented his demon-like 
sense of delight, it would have been the sight of 
Zachary's heart-broken figure and Samuel's coun- 
tenance clouded with grief and despair. On see- 
ing Abiathar's pallid look and agitated manner, 
Obed's sense of supreme comfort lessens instinct- 
ively, and he feels irritated at the chief priest's 
ingratitude. 

" Like the chaff which the wind driveth away, 
the fool shall not stand in judgment, nor the rash 
man in the congregation of the wise," Abiathar 
greets Obed. " Thy want of forethought is the 
strength of thy enemies, and thy lack of prudence 
is the ruin of thy friends." 

" Many a time," answers Obed, " hath thy 
tongue outrun thy judgment, and many a time 
hath my counsel corrected thy rashness. Instead 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 185 

of speaking bitter words, thou oughtest to lay 
open thy needs, and obtain the necessary help, if 
help may be had." 

" The son of Ananiah hath been received among 
the ministering priests, and thou well understand- 
est what will follow his admission." 

"Were all the points of law observed?" in- 
quires Obed as soon as he has somewhat recov- 
ered from his state of stupor brought on by Abia- 
thar's communication. 

" All has been done in legal form," the chief 
priest answers. 

" Was the genealogical register read ? " repeats 
Obed. 

" The document was found defective," replies 
Abiathar ; " but Hillel and Zachary testified, and 
their testimony prevailed." 

"Abiathar," says Obed after a long pause, 
" there is one more expedient I shall try ; if it 
fails, both of us are ruined and must leave this 
cursed city at once." 

" So long as the Lord is on our side," Abiathar 
replies, " our contest will be victorious ; Zachary's 
childlessness and his constant exclusion from the 
office of offering incense are to me sure signs of 
the Lord's anger against him." 

" What Zachary's childlessness means, and how 
it is caused I know not," says Obed ; " as to his ex- 
clusion from the office of incense, I well know its 
cause. For these many years have I managed to 
be among the number of those who are admitted 
to the lot for the burning of incense, with the in- 



186 A DAY IK THE TEMPLE, 

tention of preventing Zachary's appointment for 
that office." 

This revelation seemed to scandalize even the 
hardened Abiathar. Versed as he was in under- 
hand dealing and scheming, he had never thought 
of attempting anything of the kind Obed had in- 
timated. But for the present, the chief priest 
could not signify any displeasure at his accom- 
plice's way of acting. His services were too much 
needed just now. Hence Abiathar only replies: 
" Why dost thou tarry, if there is another way of 
saving thyself and me ? " 

"I cannot leave this place, Abiathar," Obed 
answers, "till the lot has been cast for this after- 
noon's incense ©ffering. Were I to leave now, 
my careful vigilance of these many years might be 
all in vain." 

"As to the lot for the burning of incense," 
Abiathar urges," thou needest not fear. Matthiah 
the high priest has signified his intention of per- 
forming that duty himself in order to add more 
solemnity to the occasion of the new priests' 
admission." 

While Abiathar was speaking, Obed approached 
the northern door of Beth-Moked, and passing 
into the Chel and the Court of Gentiles, he hur- 
riedly directed his steps towards Herod's royal 
palace. 

Meanwhile, Matthiah has led Zachary and 
Samuel to the Court of Women where he pauses 
for a short while as if reflecting . on the safest 
place of concealment. Thirteen chests or trum- 



A DAT IN" THE TEMPLE. 187 

pets for charitable contributions are placed around 
the -walls within the simple colonnade. Here 
Jesus will see " the rich men casting their gifts into 
the treasury — and a certain poor widow casting 
thither two mites." The chests are narrow at the 
mouth and wide at the bottom, shaped like trum- 
pets, whence their name. Nine are for the re- 
ceipt of what is legally due by worshippers ; the 
•other four are for strictly voluntary gifts. 

Trumpets I. and II. are appropriated to the 
half-shekel Temple-tribute of the current and the 
past year. Into trumpet III. the women who have 
to bring turtledoves for a burnt-offering and a sin- 
offering drop their equivalent in money, which is 
daily taken out and a corresponding number of 
turtledoves is offered. Trumpet IV. similarly 
receives the value of the offerings of young pig- 
eons. In trumpet V. contributions for the wood 
used in the Temple, in trumpet VI. for the in- 
cense, and in trumpet VII. for the golden ves- 
sels of the ministry are deposited. Into trumpet 
VIII. is cast what is left over from the money set 
aside for the purchase of sin-offerings, into the 
trumpets X., XL, XII. and XIII. are similarly 
cast the remnants of the money destined for the 
purchase of trespass-offerings, offerings of birds, 
the offering of the Nazarites, of the cleansed 
lepers, and voluntary offerings. 

It is in this court that by the light of four huge 
candelabra each fifty cubits high, and burning 
on the evenings of the Feast of Tabernacles, 
Jesus will declare : " I am the light of the world." 



188 A DAY ffl THE TEMPLE. 

From the shape of the money-chests Jesus will 
take his ironical allusion to the blowing of trum- 
pets, when describing the conduct of those who, 
in their almsgiving, seek glory from men rather 
than the honor of God. 

Besides these single money-chests, there is at 
the centre of the northern wall a room into which 
at certain times the contents of the trumpets are 
carried. Opposite this chamber, at the centre of 
the southern wall, is the Chamber of the Silent 
where devout persons secretly deposit money, 
afterwards secretly employed for educating chil- 
dren of the deserving poor. 

Matthiah throws a glance at the money-chests 
and the treasury-chambers, but considers them 
unfit for hiding places. He next looks upon the 
doors on the western side of the Court of Women, 
one on either side of the stairs leading up to the 
Nicanor Gate. They open into subterraneous 
rooms under the Court of Israel, where the Lev- 
ites keep their musical instruments. The apart- 
ments are sufficiently ample, and even cheerful ; 
but so many persons have access to them, that no 
one can hide in them for any length of time with- 
out detection. 

Zachary suggests one of the thirty-eight rooms 
or, at any rate, one of the apartments surrounding 
the Temple proper. But not to speak of the law 
that none may be seated in these apartments, 
Matthiah knows by experience, that in case of 
peril no place on the whole Temple Mount is more 
scrupulously searched than those very chambers. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 189 

Nothing else remains than to conceal Samuel in 
one of the four rooms, or rather unroofed squares 
of forty cubits, occupying the four corners of the 
Court of Women. In the northeastern corner is 
the Lepers' Chamber; its name is due to the fact 
that the lepers bathe in this room during the sec- 
ond stage of their purification. Before that period 
great precautions are taken to examine them 
thoroughly. The examination cannot be pro- 
ceeded with early in the morning, nor " between 
the evenings," nor inside the house, nor on a 
cloudy day, nor yet during the glare of midday, 
but from 9 a. m. to 12 o'clock noon, and from 1 
p.m. to 3 p. m. ; according to Rabbi Jehudah, 
only at 10 or 11 o'clock a. m., and at 2 or 3 
o'clock p. m. The examining priest must neither 
be blind of an eye, nor impaired in sight, nor 
may he pronounce as to the leprosy of his own 
kindred. Furthermore, judgment is not to be 
pronounced at the same time about two suspi- 
cious spots, whether on the same or on different 
persons. 

The rights of purification are twofold. The 
first restores the leper to fellowship with the con- 
gregation, the other introduces him anew to com- 
munion with God, In both respects, the leper 
has been dead, and has come to life again. The 
priest having declared the former leper clean, a 
quarter of a log of living water is poured into an 
earthenware dish. Then two birds are taken, the 
Rabbis say two sparrows, of whom one is killed 
over the " living water," so that the blood may 



190 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE, 

drop into it, after which the carcass is buried. 
Next, cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet wool are 
taken and tied together, and dipped, along with 
the living bird, which is seized by the tips of his 
wings and of his tail, into the bloodstained water, 
when the person to be purified is sprinkled seven 
times on the back of his hand, or, according to 
others, on his forehead. Upon this the living 
bird is set free, neither towards the sea, nor to- 
wards the city, nor towards the wilderness, but 
towards the fields. Finally, the leper has all the 
hair on his body shorn with a razor, after which 
he washes his clothes and bathes, when he is clean, 
though still interdicted his house for seven 
days. 

The first stage of the leper's purification is then 
completed, and a seven days' seclusion serves 
as preparation for the second stage. The former 
may take place anywhere, but the latter must 
take place in the sanctuary. It begins on the 
seventh day itself; the purified leper has first again 
all his hair shorn, washes his clothes, and bathes. 
Three classes require this legal tonsure ; lepers, 
Nazarites and Levites at their consecration. On 
the eighth day the leper brings three sacrifices : 
a sin, a trespass, and a burnt-offering, and the 
poor bring a sin, and a burnt-offering of a bird. 
We have already seen how the victim is slain, and 
how its blood is caught up and sprinkled. From 
what has been said, it appears that the leper's 
room might have offered a safe hiding place, on 
account of the few persons who ever entered it ; 



A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 191 

but at the same time, one ran the risk of defile- 
ment in it. 

The chamber where the Nazarites polled their 
hairand cooked their peace-offering seemed better 
fitted to conceal Samuel, and Matthiah had walked 
a considerable distance towards the court's south- 
eastern corner where the chamber was situated. The 
offerings of a Nazarite on the completion of his vow 
are explicitly described in the Book of Numbers.* 
Along with the " ram without blemish for a 
peace-offering," he had to bring a %t basket of un- 
leavened bread, cakes of fine flour, mingled with 
oil, and wafers of unleavened bread anointed 
with oil," as well as the ordinary " meat- 
offering and their drink-offerings." After 
the various sacrifices had been offered by 
the priest, the Nazarite retired to the chamber in 
Court of Women, where he boiled the flesh of 
his peace-offering, cut off his hair, and threw it 
into the fire under the caldron. If he had 
cut off his hair before coming to Jerusalem, 
he must still bring it with him, and cast it in 
the fire under the caldron. This may throw 
light on what we read in the Acts.f " And 
Paul having tarried after this yet many days, 
took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence 
for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; 
having shorn his head in Cenchreae ; for he had a 
vow." 

As Matthiah approaches the Nazarites* Cham- 



* VI. 13-21, 
f XVIII, 18, 



192 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

ber his pace becomes slower, and at last he stops. 
No one knows how long Samuel will have to be 
concealed, and under such circumstances a room 
into which so many strangers enter, is no safe 
hiding place. 

Zachary points to the southwestern corner of 
the court where the oil and wine are kept for the 
drink-offerings. The old priest has frequently as- 
sisted the officer in charge of the apartment and 
knows from experience that concealment in the 
place is easily effected. 

" Knowest thou Obed, our enemy ? " Matthiah 
replies to Zachary's suggestions. And after a 
perceptible inward struggle, he continues: 
11 Zachary, thus far I have left thee in ignorance 
about Obed's designs against thee and thy house. 
Since he has made new efforts and designed new 
plots, thou must know his malice in order to de- 
fend thyself and thine against him. It was Obed 
who betrayed thy father to the royal scouts, when 
he lay concealed in yonder chamber. Josiah's 
betrayer would have too easy a task, were we to 
conceal Samuel in the Chamber of Oil and 
Wine." 

" The Lord is good," answers Zachary, " and 
ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all 
them that call upon him. But he also remem- 
bers and visits and takes vengeance on his perse- 
cutors ; he takes them away in his long-suffering, 
and afflicts those who inflict reproach upon his 
faithful servants." 

Meanwhile they have reached the northeastern 



A DAT W THE TEMPLE. 193 

corner of the court and entered the chamber 
in which the priests unfit for other than menial 
services, pick out the worm-eaten wood from that 
destined for the altar. It so happened that at the 
time considerable quantities were piled up in the 
square. For the Feast of Wood-Offering had ta- 
ken place on the 15th of Ab,* being the last of 
the nine occasions on which offerings of wood 
were brought to the Temple. As early as the 
time of Nehemiah it was ordained that the 
priests, the Levites and the people were at certain 
periods of the year to furnish the necessary sup- 
ply of wood for the altar. All was arranged ac- 
cording to houses and families, the respective 
turns being determined by lot. At a later period, 
the general wood-offering took place only once a 
year on the above stated day; certain families 
had, however, the privilege of offering wood on 
other occasions. 

On the first of Nisan wood was furnished by the 
family of Arach, of the tribe of Judah ; on the 
twentieth of Tammus by the family of David, of 
the tribe of Judah; on tne fifth of Ab by the 
family of Pareosh, of the tribe of Judah; on the 
seventh of Ab by the family of Jonadab the 
Rechabite ; on the tenth of Ab by the family of 
Senaa, of the tribe of Benjamin ; on the fifteenth 
of Ab by the family of Sattu, of the tribe of Ju • 
dah ; on the twentieth of Ab by the family of 
Pachath-Moab, of the tribe of Judah. 

* August. 



194 A DAT IN THE TEMPLE. 

But on the fifteenth of Ab, along with the fam- 
ily of Sattu, all the people, even proselytes, slaves, 
Nethinin and bastards, but notably the priests and 
Levites were allowed to bring up wood; hence the 
day is called "the time of wood for the priests." 
From this fact and the other that five of the 
special seasons for wood-offerings fell in the 
month of Ab, the chamber in the northeastern 
corner is now fairly filled with material and thus 
affords ample opportunity for hiding in it. The 
month of Ab was chosen as the principal season 
for the wood-offerings, because the wood was then 
thought to be in the best condition. The fifteenth 
day of that month was called " the day on which 
the axe is broken," signifying that after that date 
no wood might be felled for the altar, though 
part of what had been felled before was brought 
up after the fifteenth. Another account differs 
somewhat from the one here given. Jeroboam 
or Antiochus Epiphanes or some unnamed mon- 
arch had prohibited the carrying of wood and of 
the first-fruits to Jerusalem, when certain specially 
devoted families braved the danger, and on the 
fifteenth of Ab secretly introduced wood into the 
Temple, in acknowledgment wherof the privilege 
was forever after conceded to their descendants. 

The wood was first deposited in the Wood 
Room in the Court of Women, where, as has been 
already stated, that which was worm-eaten or 
otherwise unfit for the altar was picked out by the 
priests who were disqualified for other minis- 
tries. The rest was handed over to the priests 



A DAT IJST THE TEMPLE. 195 

who were Levitically qualified for the service of 
the altar, and by them stored in the Wood Room 
in the Court of Priests. The fifteenth of Ab was 
observed as a popular and joyous festival. On 
this occasion, the maidens went dressed in white, 
to dance and sing in the vineyards around Jeru- 
salem, when an opportunity was offered to the 
young men to choose their companions for life. 
For on the fifteenth of Ab the prohibition was re- 
moved which prevented heiresses from marrying 
out of their own tribe. This concession was well 
fitted for the peculiar festival. When all Israel 
without any distinction of tribe and family ap- 
peared to make their offerings at Jerusalem, it 
was but fitting that they should be at liberty 
similarly to select their partners in life without 
the usual tribal limitations. 

Visitors in the Wood Room did not attract 
much attention. The family pride of those em- 
ployed in the place and the painful sense of their 
physical shortcomings, together with the frequency 
of visiting strangers or priests made it possible for 
our little group of friends to pass unnoticed. But 
they were not entirely unobserved. At the very 
time they entered the room, the venerable old 
scribe to whom Matthiah had spoken in the Hall 
of Polished Stones, came in by the Beautiful Gate, 
and followed his friends without delay. In the 
Wood Room he had indeed some difficulty in 
picking out the exact passage Matthiah had 
chosen ; but suspecting his friend's purpose, he 
knew instinctively the hiding place intended for 



1% A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

Samuel. Zachary has been looking anxiously 
around him, ever since they approached the place 
of concealment, and much to his alarm he sees the 
scribe follow them. 

" All is lost, Matthiah," says Zachary ; " behold 
the scribe following and watching us." 

Matthiah walks up to his friend as soon as he 
recognizes him, and asks about the success of his 
errand. 

" It is well ; all is well," the scribe answers ; 
" Herod is much pleased at seeing Samuel re- 
ceived among the ministering priesthood." 

" But why then did he wish Samuel to enter the 
army, or to live at his court ? " inquires Zachary, 
who has been anxiously listening to the words of 
the scribe. 

" At first," the latter continues, " I could not 
understand Herod's surprise at hearing my re- 
port. But then I learned that Samuel's chance to 
be received among the priesthood had been repre- 
sented to the king as entirely hopeless. His 
genealogical record, Salome had told him, was 
lost and no way was left Samuel to prove his 
priestly descent." 

"This, too, is a scheme of Obed," observes 
Matthiah ; " may he perish with his plot." 

" The king spoke of other matters, that were 
riddles to me," the scribe continues. " Samuel's 
family might be raised by appointing him to the 
headship of Abijah's course, the king said, and 
by raising Zachary to the dignity of the council. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 197 

To all this I paid but little attention, being anx- 
ious to bring you the good news." 

"Shall I now be free to mingle among the min- 
istering priests," expectantly inquires Samuel, 
"without being obliged to lie concealed in this 
Wood Room ? " 

"Samuel," says Matthiah, "all depends on 
Obed's course of action ; could I but know our 
enemy's deceit, I should be able to advise thee 
prudently." 

" I saw Obed at the gate of Salome's palace," 
the messenger interposes ; " but little help will he 
obtain from his patroness to-day. She has left 
this very morning for Caesarea, to be present at the 
new play written by her favorite, Gallus." 

" Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel," ex- 
claim Zachary and Samuel with one accord ; " for 
he hath visited and wrought redemption for his 
people." 

" And now we know," continues Matthiah, 
" that the Lord can do all things, and that no 
purpose of his can be restrained. Who is this 
that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore 
have we often uttered that which we understood 
not, things too wonderful for us, which we knew 
not. Hear, O Lord, I beseech thee, and I will 
speak ; I will demand of thee, and declare thou 
unto me. I had heard of thee by the hearing of 
the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee. Where- 
fore I loathe my words and repent in dust and 
ashes." 



198 A DAY IN TEE TEMPLE. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE EVENING SACRIFICE. 

The evening sacrifice is usually slain midway 
between the eighth and the ninth hour and offered 
between the ninth and tenth. It resembles in all 
respects the morning sacrifice, except that the lot 
is cast only for the burning of incense, and that 
the latter takes place not before, but after the 
pieces of sacrifice have been laid on the fire. The 
daily burnt-offering is, therefore, girt round with 
the offering of incense. 

When the time requires it, the two priests ap- 
pointed by the morning lot, fetch the sacrificial 
lamb from the Beth-Moked, inspect it, water it out 
of the golden bowl, fasten it to the second ring, 
but not, as in the morning, on the western, but on 
the eastern end of the court, cut its wind-pipe and 
gullet, and catch up its blood which is sprinkled 
in the perscribed manner. Then the victim is 
flayed and divided up into portions similar to 
those we have considered in the morning. 

At this juncture the proceedings are suddenly 
interrupted. Obed who according to appoint- 
ment must carry the two sides of the victim, can- 
not be found anywhere. Some hasten to the 
Beth-Moked, others to the Hall of Polished 
Stones, others again pass through the different 
courts, but all are equally unsuccessful. Abiathar 
must, of course, be informed of Obed's irregular- 
ity. Unwelcome as the news and its bearer will 
be to the chief priest, Obed's friend and defender 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 199 

on all occasions, the head of the course must 
provide in this extremity a substitute for the 
absentee. 

Abiathar has not dared to leave the furnace 
' room in the Beth-Moked since Obed's disappear- 
ance. The more he thinks of his present condi- 
tion and his future prospects, the gloomier and 
more irritated he becomes. If Josiah's family 
returns, his headship of Abijah's house will sure- 
ly be lost ; even if he should retain his position 
in the Sanhedrin, his family after him will not be 
admitted to that dignity, having no longer any 
title to it. But these are bright and hopeful views ; 
what of his injustice done to Zachary these many 
years ? what of Josiah's wealth which he has given 
into Obed's hands to pay him for his services ? 
what above all, if his complicity with Obed's dark 
transactions should come to light? In that case, 
exclusion from the priesthood and the Sanhedrin, 
prison and death will probably be his lot. And 
where remains Obed all this time ? 

As if in answer to Abiathar's last question 
Abdiah enters the furnace room with the words : 
" Obed is absent from his post in the Court of 
Priests." 

" I'll have thee whipped, thou villain," Abiathar 
shouts at Abdiah. 

Imagining that the chief priest has not under- 
stood his report, Abdiah states again : " Some one 
must be appointed in Obed's place ; he is absent 
from his post at the evening sacrifice. " 

Abiathar sees that aoovc all, he must not betray 



200 A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 

himself to his colleagues ; he quietly orders 
Abdiah to do Obed's duty at the sacrificial serv- 
ice, and turning away, continues his melancholy 
reflections. 

Meanwhile the victim is divided, and the priests 
walking in procession carry its parts to the ascent 
of the altar, where they salt their respective por- 
tions. Then going to the Gazith, they expect the 
high priest Matthiah to join them. For they have 
been told that no lot will be cast for the burn- 
ing of the incense, the high priest intending 
to perform that ceremony. At their arrival they 
find Matthiah indeed, seated in the Hall of Polished 
Stones, but near by stands Ben Achiah the Tem- 
ple physician with medicines and refreshments. 
A look at the high priest shows that his ministry 
cannot be thought of to-day. Word must be sent 
to Abiathar about this unexpected occurrence; 
not as if the chief priest could appoint any one to 
burn the incense. But his knowledge must give 
full legal force to the casting of lots, now rendered 
necessary. 

A few moments before the messenger reaches 
the Beth-Moked, Obed has hurriedly entered by 
the northern gate and passed into the furnace 
room. " The accursed son of Ananiah has won 
the victory," he addresses Abiathar ; " Salome, 
my last hope, has left the city, and Herod has 
resolved to deprive thee of thy headship of Abi- 
jah's course." 

For a moment Abiathar stands upright, as if 
rooted to the ground ; his eyes look vacant, his 



A DAT IK THE TEMPLE, 201 

mental faculties seem extinct, and his bodily frame 
resembles an inanimate mass of brute matter 
rather than a living being. " Cursed be the day 
that gave me birth," exclaims Abiathar, "and 
cursed be the womb that bare me and the man 
who begat me." 

"Thy words ill befit this occasion," remarks 
Obed ; " thou well knowest that Herod never 
removes an official from his position without 
assigning sufficient reason for his way of acting. 
Usually, the same reason suffices for the unhappy 
man's imprisonment and death." 

" Why remind me of this, villain ? Or rather, 
why not picture to me the honor of disgrace, the 
pleasure of pain, the delight of torture, the con- 
centrated life in the hour of death ? " 

" Because I do not wish thee to undergo all 
this," calmly replied Obed ; " instant action on 
our part may prevent our final ruin. We must 
leave the city before the evening sacrifice is laid 
on the altar." 

At this point of time the messenger arrives in 
the furnace room, announcing the high priest's 
sudden illness, and the consequent necessity of 
casting the lot for the burning of incense. Abia- 
thar merely gives a sign that he has heard the 
message, but Obed's eyes roll in wild excitement. 
With all his practical wisdom, he is really crazed 
on the point of not allowing the lot to fall on 
Zachary. So soon as the messenger leaves, he 
turns to Abiathar and declares his intention of 
taking part in the casting of the lot. 



202 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

" What of our safety before the end of the even- 
ing sacrifice ? " Abiathar inquires full of fear and 
misgivings. 

" It will be well," briefly answers Obed ; " our 
enemy shall not burn the incense before we leave 
the city." 

Despite Abiathar's earnest pleading not to leave 
him in this hour of distress, Obed hurriedly passes 
through the Court of Priests to the Hall of 
Polished Stones. He arrives at the very moment 
when the priests are forming the customary circle 
around Matthiah the prefect of lots. At Mat- 
thiah's bidding Obed is taken prisoner by the 
Temple police on two distinct charges. First, he 
has been absent from his post at the evening sac- 
rifice, a misdemeanor punishable by flogging; 
secondly, he has presented himself at the casting 
of the lot for the burning of incense, though he is 
already appointed for an office incompatible with 
the incense offering. While Obed is still haggling 
with the Temple guard and appealing to Abiathar's 
decision at whose command he claims to have ab- 
sented himself from his duty, Matthiari proceeds 
with the casting of the lot, and it falls on Zachary. 

" O magnify the Lord with me," exclaims Zach- 
ary, "and let us exalt his name together. I 
sought the Lord, and he answered me, and de- 
livered me from all fears. I looked unto him, and 
was lightened; and my face hath not been con- 
founded. The poor man cries out, and the Lord 
hears him, and saves him out of all his troubles. 
The angel of the Lord encompasseth round about 



A DAY W THE TEMPLE. 203 

them that fear him, and delivereth them. O taste 
and see that the Lord is good ; blessed is the 
man that trusteth in him." 

Meanwhile, the messengers sent to inform Mat- 
thiah the chief priest of Obed's detention and the 
charges brought against him, have hurried to the 
Beth-Moked, have passed through every room and 
apartment in the House of Stoves, but cannot find 
Abiathar anywhere. The latter, left alone by 
Obed, had considered it safer to leave the Temple 
Mount without delay. As to Obed, he might 
meet him in the city, or if they should not meet, 
it would be far easier to remain in safety without 
him than in his company. After the men had 
searched every corner and apartment of the Beth- 
Moked, they looked through its northern gate 
into the Chel where the chief priest was accus- 
tomed to walk at times. The Levite on guard 
informs them that Abiathar has left the Temple in 
great haste without speaking to any one in the 
courts. 

When this news is delivered in the Gazith, Obed 
is at first fully overcome with the difficulty of his 
position. But his readiness to devise means and 
ways does not leave him even in this critical posi- 
tion. Though he himself is fully conversant with 
Abiathar's reasons for leaving the Temple, no one 
else is acquainted with them. Consequently he 
may during the evening safely urge his appeal to 
the chief priest's decision. As to the course of 
action to be followed later, new resources will pre- 
sent themselves as time wears on. Even if every- 



204 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

thing else fails, he always may appeal to 
Zachary's intercession, whom he has so signally 
befriended on the morning of that very day. 

Meanwhile Zachary has selected Matthiah and 
Samuel as his assistants, and all the ministering 
priests proceed to the altar of burnt-offering. This 
is the time of day alluded to in the Acts where we 
read : " Peter and John went up together into the 
Temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth 
hour." Though the evening service is somewhat 
shorter than that of the morning, it lasts, at any 
rate, about an hour and a~half, say till about four 
o'clock of our time. The law : " The one lamb 
shalt thou offer in the mornings and the other 
lamb shalt thou offer at even " is thus sufficiently 
complied with. After the evening sacrifice no 
other offering may be brought except on the eve 
of the Passover, when the evening sacrifice takes 
place two hours before the usual time. 

What has been said, sufficiently defines the 
vague terms in which the time of the evening sac- 
rifice is described in the Book of Numbers * 
as falling " between the two evenings," that is, 
between the darkness of gloaming and that of 
the night. Again, such admonitions as "to show 
forth faithfulness every night upon an instrument 
of ten strings and on the psaltery," and the call 
to those who " by the night stand in the house 
of the Lord " to " lift up their hands in the 
sanctuary and bless the Lord," and the appoint- 



XXVIII. 4, 8. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 205 

ment of the Levite singers for the night service, 
point one and all to the sacrifice offered up be- 
tween the two evenings. 

After arriving in the Court of Priests, Zachary's 
assistants take the censer filled with live coals from 
the proper fire of incense-offering, and the double 
incense boat, and preceded by the two ministers 
appointed to cleanse the altar of incense and fill 
the lamps on the candlestick, they walk in proces- 
sion to the Holy Place. Zachary too, receives the 
triple admonition customary on this occasion, and 
then the Magrephah is sounded, calling priests, 
Levites and " stationary men " to their respective 
positions. 

St. Luke relates this event in his usual simple 
and clear way : " There was in the days of He- 
rod, king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacha- 
rias, of the course of Abijah ; and he had a wife 
of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was 
Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before 
God, walking in all the commandments and ordi- 
nances of the Lord blameless. And they had no 
child, because that Elizabeth was barren, and they 
both were now well stricken in years. Now it 
came to pass while he executed the priest's office 
his lot was to enter the Temple of the Lord and 
burn incense." 

The high priest Matthiah has in the meantime 
sufficiently recovered to enter the Priests' Court ; 
ascending the altar of burnt-offering he seats 
himself near the entrance to the priests' circuit. 
Part after part of the victim is carried up to the 



206 A DAY m THE TEMPLE, 

altar the high priest laying his hands on every 
portion presented. The single pieces are 
first thrown promiscuously on the fire, and 
then arranged in their proper position. While 
this happens, the four assistants leave Zach- 
ary in the Holy Place, and stand on the 
stairs of the Temple porch. When finally the 
smoke of the burnt-offering curls up to the 
throne of the Most High, the presiding priest 
gives the loud command : " Burn the incense." 
Zachary pours the precious material upon the live 
coals, distributing it in the perscribed manner. 

" And the whole multitude of the people were 
praying without at the hour of incense," lying 
prostrate on their faces before the Lord, with 
outspread hands. Throughout the vast Temple- 
buildings deep silence rested on the worshipping 
multitude, while within the sanctuary itself the 
cloud of odors rose up before the Lord. St. John 
takes from this circumstance his description of 
the heavenly Jerusalem : " And when he had 
opened the seventh seal, there was silence in 
heaven about the space of half an hour. And 
another angel came and stood at the altar, having 
a golden censer ; and there was given unto him 
much incense, that he should offer it with the 
prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which 
was before the throne. And the smoke of the in- 
cense, which came with the prayers of the saints, 
ascended up before God out of the angel's hand." 

Within the sanctuary Zachary lies on his face 
before the Lord, repeating in his innermost 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 207 

heart the longings of the prophet : " Drop down, 
ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour 
down righteousness : let the earth open, that they 
may bring forth salvation, and let her cause right- 
eousness to spring up together ; I the Lord have 
created it. Amen." 

" Look down from heaven, and behold from the 
habitation of thy holinesss and of thy glory : 
where is thy zeal and thy mighty acts ? the yearn- 
ing of thy bowels and thy compassions are re- 
strained toward me. For thou art our father, 
though Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel doth 
not acknowledge us : thou, O Lord, art our father ; 
our redeemer from everlasting is thy name. O 
Lord, why dost thou make us to err from thy 
ways, and hardenest our heart from thy fear ? Re- 
turn for thy servant's sake, the tribes of thine in- 
heritance. Thy holy people possessed it but a 
little while : our adversaries have trodden down 
thy sanctuary. We are become as they over 
whom thou never bearest rule ; as they that were 
called by thy name. Amen." 

In the ardor of his devotion Zachary adds a 
third prayer: "Oh that thou wouldst rend the 
heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the 
mountains might flow down at thy presence ; as 
when fire kindleth the brushwood, and the fire 
causeth the waters to boil : to make thy name 
known to thy adversaries, that the nations may 
tremble at thy presence ! When thou didst terri- 
ble things which we looked not for, thou earnest 
down, the mountains flowed down at thy pres- 



208 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

ence. For from of old men have not heard, nor 
perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a 
God beside thee, which worketh for him that 
waiteth for him. Thou meetest him that re- 
joiceth and worketh righteousness, those that re- 
member thee in thy ways : behold, thou wast 
wroth, and we sinned : in them have we been of 
long time, and shall we be saved ? For we are all 
become as one that is unclean, and all our right- 
eousnesses are as a polluted garment : and we all 
do fade as a leaf ; and our iniquities, like the wind, 
take us away. And there is none that calleth 
upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take 
hold of thee : for thou hast hid thy face from us, 
and hast consumed us by means of our iniquities. 
But now, O Lord, thou art our father ; we are the 
clay, and thou our potter ; and we all are the work 
of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, 
neither remember inquity forever : behold, look, 
we beseech thee, we are all thy people. Thy holy 
cities are become a wilderness, Zion is become a 
wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and 
our beautiful house, where our fathers praised 
thee, is burned with fire ; and all our pleasant 
things are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain thyself 
for these things, O Lord? Wilt thou hold thy 
peace, and afflict us very sore ? " 

"And there appeared unto him an angel of the 
Lord standing on the right side of the altar of in- 
cense. And Zacharias was troubled when he saw 
him, and fear fell upon him. Bat the angel said 
unto him: 

"Fear not, Zacharias, because thy supplication 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 209 

is heard, and thy wife, Elizabeth, shall bear thee a 
son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou 
shalt have joy and gladness ; and many shall re- 
joice at his birth. For he shall be great in the 
sight of the Lord, and he shall drink no wine or 
strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy 
Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many 
of the children of Israel shall he turn unto the 
Lord their God. And he shall go before his face 
in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts 
of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient 
to walk in the wisdom of the just; to make ready 
for the Lord a people prepared for him." 

And Zacharias said unto the angel : " Whereby 
shall I know this ? for I am an old man, and my 
wife well stricken in years." 

And the angel answering said unto him : " I am 
Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God ; and I 
was sent to speak unto thee, and to bring thee 
these good tidings. And behold, thou shalt be 
silent and not able to speak, until the day that 
these things shall come to pass, because thou be- 
lievedst not my words, which shall be fulfilled in 
their season." 

Before Zachary had recovered sufficiently to 
realize the angel's threat and promise fully, 
Gabriel has disappeared from sight. For he is 

" One of the Seven, 
Who in God's presence, nearest to his throne, 
Stand ready at command, and are his eyes 
That run through all the heavens, and down to earth, 
Bear his swift errands over moist and dry, 
O'er sea and land." 

n 



210 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

" And the people were waiting for Zacharias, 
and they marvelled why he tarried in the Temple." 
The Jews were fully persuaded that castastrophes 
sometimes occurred not only for intrusion into the 
Temple, but for any irregularity in it. Did they 
not read in the Book of Leviticus : " And he shall 
put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, 
that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy- 
seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not ? "* 
According o the Talmud, they feared the dis- 
pleasure of God, should they not discharge their 
duty in the Holy Place with all possible haste and 
earnestness. 

And when he came out to join his assistants on 
the steps of the porch and to pronounce the three- 
fold blessing over the vast congregation of Israel, 
" he could not speak unto them, and they per- 
ceived that he had seen a vision in the Temple, 
and he continued making signs unto them, and re- 
mained dumb." The blessing having been pro- 
nounced by Zachary's companions, the people's 
and the high priest's meat-offering are laid on the 
fire, and; the drink-offering is poured out. Then 
the Temple music ends the sacrificial day. 

The last notes of the music have now died out, 
and the ministering priests are once more gath- 
ered in the Hall or Polished Stones. Though the 
sacerdotal work is not yet ended, Matthiah and 
Samuel are without difficulty excused for a short 
time in order to attend to Zachary's case. The 



* XIV. 13. 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 211 

latter appears to be changed into another being. 
A new light shines in his bright and joyful eye 
as he points up to heaven ; his tall stature has lost 
its abject stoop, and filled with heaven-born cour- 
age he has assumed the bearing of the prophets of 
old. 

At Matthiah's and Samuel's approach, Zachary 
grasps the roll of Isaiah's prophecies ; looking 
hurriedly over its columns, he points out to his 
companions the consoling passage : " Sing, O 
barren, thou that didst not bear ; break forth 
into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not 
travail with child ; for more are the children 
of the desolate than the children of the married 
wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy 
tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of 
thine habitations ; spare not ; lengthen thy cords, 
and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt spread 
abroad on the right hand and on the left ; and thy 
seed shall possess the nations, and make the deso- 
late cities to be inhabited. Fear not, for thou 
shalt not be ashamed ; neither be thou confounded 
for thou shalt not be put to shame ; for thou shalt 
forget the shame of thy youth, and the reproach 
of thy widowhood shalt thou remember no more. 
For thy Maker is thine husband ; the Lord of- 
hosts is his name ; and the Holy One of Israel is 
thy redeemer ; the God of the whole earth shall 
be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a wife 
forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, 
when she is cast off, saith thy God. For a small 
moment have I forsaken thee ; but with great 



212 A DAT W THE TEMPLE. 

mercies will I gather thee. In overflowing wrath 
I hid my face from thee for a moment ; but with 
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, 
saith the Lord thy redeemer." 

When Matthiah and Samuel had read the pas- 
sage thus far, they looked at each other and un- 
derstood Zachary's secret. Samuel embraces the 
old priest, and blesses the everlasting mercies of 
God. Matthiah laying down the roll of Isaiah, 
applies to Zachary those other words of the 
prophet: "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, 
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, 
behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross 
darkness the peoples ; but the Lord shall arise 
upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon 
thee." 

The worshippers have slowly retired, only a few 
lingering for private prayer, or tarrying in the 
marble porches. The short eastern day is fast 
ebbing away in the west, the sun sinking far over 
the mountains of Gibeon in that ocean across which 
the Light of the World is soon to send forth its 
undying rays. The ninety-three sacrificial imple- 
ments which have served during the day, must be 
cleansed and deposited in their proper places. 
The accounts of the day have to be made up and 
checked. For the Levites in charge of collecting 
the tithes and of the other business details, pur- 
chase during the day in large quantities what 
every one who brings a sacrifice needs for meat 
and drink-offerings. This is a great accommoda- 
tion for the pious worshipper, and an important 



A DAY IX THE TEMFLE. 213 

source of revenue to the Temple. But the trans- 
actions need a careful and accurate supervision on 
the part of the higher priestly officials. 

While the accounts are drawn up, the usual 
peace of the evening is considerably disturbed. 
All the money kept in an apartment of the Beth- 
Moked, together with the checks or counterfoil, 
has disappeared. No one but Abiathar has had 
access to the room during the day, and Abiathar 
has not yet returned from his mysterious errand 
into the city. 

While the money question excites the priests 
in and near the Beth-Moked, another event dis- 
turbs the peace of those near the Gazith. Herod's 
royal guard is standing in the Court of Gentiles, 
and loudly demands the surrender of Obed. The 
king has been informed of Obed's deception, as 
well as of his forging a document sealed with his 
own royal ring. Despite the forger's entreaties 
and pleadings, the Temple police gladly surren- 
ders the prisoner. For Abiathar is sure to avenge 
all the wrongs, real or imaginary, done to Obed. 
Though Samuel, after his elevation to the head- 
ship of Abijah's course, which will happen within 
the week, is not able to trace Abiathar's where- 
abouts, his intercession with Herod is powerful 
enough to change Obed's sentence of death into 
that of perpetual exile. 

Meanwhile, the new company of priests and 
Levites who are to conduct the services of the mor- 
row are coming up from Ophel under the leader- 
ship of their respective elders. Those who have 



214 A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 

officiated are preparing to leave by another gate. 
They have put off their sandals and their priestly 
dress, depositing all in the appointed chambers. 
For sandals may be worn in the Temple, the 
priests being barefoot only during their actual 
service. Abiathar, the chief priest, being absent, 
the oldest member of the departing division of 
priests takes leave of the entering division in words 
reminding one of St. Paul's words at the end of 
his second letter to the Corinthians: "He that 
has caused his name to dwell in this house cause 
love, brotherhood, peace, and friendship to dwell 
among you." 

As the family whose daily " ministration is ac- 
complished " leaves the Temple, its massive gates 
are closed by the priests or Levites appointed for 
this duty ; the keys are hung up in the hollow 
square, under the marble slab in the House of 
Stoves. And when the stars are shining on the 
deep blue eastern sky, the priests gather for pious 
conversation and to take their evening meal; sacri- 
ficial meats and the prepared first fruits sup- 
ply the necessary refreshments. The twenty- 
four night watches, consisting of ten men each, 
have already been set, and the captain of the 
Temple, or the " man of the Temple Mount " has 
begun his rounds of inspection. 

" Watchman, what of the night ? watchman, what 
of the night ? The morning cometh, and also the 
night. If ye will inquire, inquire ! Return, come ! 
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of 
that him bringeth good tidings, that publisheth 



A DAY IN THE TEMPLE. 215 

peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that pub- 
lisheth salvation ; that saith unto Zion : Thy God 
reigneth ! The voice of thy watchmen ! they lift 
up the voice, together do they sing ; for they shall 
see, eye to eye, when the Lord returneth to Zion. 
Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places 
of Jerusalem : for the Lord hath comforted his 
people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord 
hath made bare his arm in the eyes of all nations ; 
and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation 
of our God." 



